Life Moves On: Back to Life
by SoapMaster
Summary: The ninja world is changing, and the greatest change is yet to come. Naruto was forced to fake his death for the sake of his village twenty years ago. Now that the threat has been alleviated, he is able to return home. How will his friends - and more importantly, his ex-fiance Sasuke - react when they find out Naruto has been alive all along. Has life moved on without him? SasuNaru
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own 'em.**

**Warning: Spoilers of the manga. There will soon be some very graphic sexual scenes.**

**Welcome to the official rewrite of **Life Moves On**, entitled **Life Moves On: Back to Life**. This will be the first of many subsequent stories in my **Life Moves On Universe**, which is more of an "alternate path" of the Narutoverse. Our story starts off over 20 years since the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War, although the **_**exact**_** timeline will be expressly stated later in the series.**

**As a warning, this prologue does not feature any characters from the Narutoverse – all OCs. This launches one of the side-stories of this story, which wasn't featured in the original story. It might be a little hard to follow, but I ask you to try your best. The point of this is to set the tone of the state of international affairs. This will become very significant by Chapter 6 or so.**

**This chapter was betaed by **SingingSparklyKuma**.**

Chapter 0: Prologue

Sho Nakamura looked over his shoulder again. He needed to make sure he wasn't being followed. If the higher-ups caught wind of what he was doing, he would be executed. He took a very roundabout route to get to the safehouse, and he made sure to double back a few times, but one could never be too careful in such a time.

The night mist was starting to pick up again, and he knew that it would be hard to see after it had spread. He needed to get there soon. If anyone saw he was outside, he'd be a dead man anyway. No one was allowed out after the curfew. The punishment was death.

There were a lot of things that could be punishable by death nowadays. The era of the Old Mist was over, and the Blood Mist Village was back. The Fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi, had died years ago, and her successor, the new Lord Mizukage Hiroto had reinstated the old policies. His first action was to annul the alliance with the other four great nations. The Mist and the Land of Water became isolationist, but that didn't stop Hiroto from setting imperial sights on an island to the west. A small indigenous people who did not know war with shinobi for over a century were all killed, and the small island was made a colony of the Mist.

That's right – Hiroto decided that he would wage war for the village, not the nation. The daimyo were too scared of him to object. They graciously allowed him his island, on which he set up a gigantic prison called Shi no Keimusho, the Prison of Death. It's where he imprisoned enemies of his regime before he enacted the death penalty.

He replaced the old elders with his supporters, and held as tight a grip on the ninja of his village as he did his ANBU. Sho was a higher-up in the ladder, a jonin in charge of the academy and all genin teams. He was always a part of the meetings that Hiroto had, when he would talk about the secret missions. Despite his isolationist policies, Hiroto had strategically placed ninja in the upper-ranks of the Cloud and Sand villages, and was working on the Leaf currently.

He was more a dictator than a kage. With all the daimyo of the Land of Water either in his pocket or too terrified to speak, Hiroto was essentially the king of the country. And while the country was booming economically and was still one of the strongest nations around, things were bad. Hiroto was paranoid, and started to constrict freedoms, enacting laws like the curfew, in order to exert his authority.

Sho finally got to the safehouse, and pressed himself close to the wall next to the door. He knocked three times in a special order, and a viewing slit opened.

"When does the bell toll?" came a raspy voice that Sho knew to be Moren. Moren Yagushi was his protector, a close family friend who had sworn himself to Sho's clan. Moren was just as involved in this as Sho was.

"The bell tolls when the time is ready," Sho said, disguising his voice in an equally raspy voice to give the password. "When the blood begins to recede and the old mist encroaches. When the land is free and the village is at peace. Then is when the bells toll." Sho heard a click as the door was unlocked, and it slid aside. He quickly shuffled inside, closing the door behind him and looking around.

It looked like everyone was here. Besides Moren and himself, Sho looked upon the faces of his brother Mako, his brother's protector, Naishi, and their close friend Hagume. There were only so many people they could trust. They'd have to pull off the coup tonight, with only their handful of people.

Hagume was a member of the ANBU, and had a number of people he knew would be willing to join the coup, as well as a number he knew to be loyal to Hiroto. His brother, the patriarch of their clan, was a respected member of the Great Clans, a select group of seven clans that met regularly to discuss affairs of the village. In old days, they were almost as powerful as the Mizukage and the elders, but their power had been reduced. Still, Mako was able to pledge the strength of the Nakamura clan, the Sasaki clan, and the Yoshida clan. If fighting erupted, they'd have a good number of shinobi with strong bloodlines.

As for Sho himself, he had spread the word amongst some trustworthy jonin senseis and their genin teams, as well as the chunin academy instructors. They would have a considerable amount of people on their side when fighting erupted, and a number of people who didn't know what was happening would join them when they saw the opportunity to regain freedom.

Sho had all the plans laid out, even his backup plan. Should the fighting go against them, the five of them would escape and plot their next moves. Their plan B was risky. It would involve all the other nations, and bring about death and destruction among all ninja villages. It wasn't the path that Sho wanted to take, but it would be the path he must take. If Hiroto managed to defeat them, he would tighten his iron grip, and the Mist would need to be destroyed.

He'd been in contact with a few people who could help should they have to implement plan B. He'd met Tanok Kato, a genjutsu-user from the Sand. She was a rogue ninja now, but she was powerful. She was what he would need. He'd also finally got into contact with Harame Mogiko, a rogue ninja with unknown origins, famous for his attack on the Leaf village many years ago. He hadn't heard from either of them in a while, but knew he'd be able to find them should the need arise.

But those weren't thoughts for now. Now their only thoughts had to be on the coup. He couldn't allow himself to get distracted, especially on a plan that would hopefully never need to come to fruition.

"Is everything ready?" Sho asked them. It was Hagume who spoke first.

"I have ensured that the ANBU are positioned accordingly," he announced. "The loyalists have been placed in areas belonging to the Nakamura clan, so they will be tied up from the get go. Our potential supporters are in areas where they can be contained or let loose depending on loyalty, while those who support us are positioned in key areas of the village."

"Good," Sho said with a curt nod. "And the clans?" he asked his brother.

"Our clan is poised to deal with hostile ANBU," Mako reiterated. "The Sasaki and Yoshida clans have been placed around the village so that they might provide relief wherever it is needed."

"Hagume and Moren – you will attack the elders," Sho told the two fighters. "Do not underestimate them. They will fight back hard, and you will have to kill them both. No survivors. You cannot let them spread word of the attack. There must be confusion and chaos." He turned to his brother and his protector. "Mako and Naishi, you two will be assigned the task of leading our clan and fighting the ANBU. Should the situation be resolved quickly, you will lead the clan to the Mizukage mansion to support me in my attack. I will be the one responsible for infiltrating the mansion and assassinating Hiroto. I will kill his loyal followers there, his guards, and all who will pose a threat to us.

"Tomorrow will be the start of the new era of the Mist," Sho announced. "Or, more accurately, a return to our old selves. After we get rid of Hiroto's regime, we will announce a call for help from the Leaf and the Cloud, the two closest nations. If all goes well, they will send squads to help us destroy all remnants still loyal to the Blood Mist, and solidify our power. We will renew our alliance with Leaf and Sand, and look to bring Stone and Cloud back into the alliance. Things will be as they were."

"Good luck," Mako said, and Naishi nodded in agreement. Hagume didn't make any sort of gesture – it tore him apart to attack the Mizukage; all ANBU were supposed to be loyal to the Mizukage above all else. Sho didn't blame him.

As the other three prepared to make their moves, Moren came to him.

"Here is where we part," Sho told him.

"I should go with you, to protect you," Moren insisted. "Hagume doesn't need my help to kill those elders. It's my duty to protect you."

"We all have our roles to play," Sho told him. "Please, follow my instructions. It's all been planned out to the last minute detail." He patted the scroll on his hip. "Besides, with these swords, I won't need your protection. Hiroto won't even know what hit him." He spoke to the group now. "Remember, don't begin the coup for another hour. I need to infiltrate the mansion and kill the Mizukage before the fighting breaks out. He can't know what's coming." He got nods of approval from the others before pulling Moren into a hug. "When I see you next, we will be liberators."

"Good luck, friend," Moren told him.

"And you," Sho said with a nod. He left the safehouse, and began to make his way to the mansion. He knew the Mizukage would be suspicious of him being out past curfew, but Sho would have to say that there was an emergency with a genin squad out on a mission. When he got the audience with the Mizukage, he would take his shot.

He ran through the streets, his feet quietly splashing through puddles. The sound seemed loud, compared to the utter silence that surrounded the village. It was eerie, but Sho didn't think much of it. It almost seemed right that he would feel like this on such a dangerous mission.

Suddenly, as he rushed through the thick mist of the village, doubt took root in his mind. What if they failed? Something could go wrong. They had a contingency plan, but it was best for everyone that it not be used. And if they were all killed before they could escape, then what would happen to that plan? What would happen to the village, their clan?

No, he wouldn't let himself think that way. He couldn't. _If I look back, I am lost_. So he pushed forward, forgetting his doubt. He was no longer a person. All he was now was a liberator. A fighter. He wouldn't fight for himself or his friends, nor his clan. No, tonight he fought for the villagers, for the people of the Land of Water. He fought for humanity.

He finally reached the Mizukage mansion. He looked up at the looming building, and realized that something was wrong. There weren't any guards around. He was able to enter the mansion easily, and waited for someone to ask him what he was doing there. He needed to see someone, something. Doubt encroached his mind once more, and he wondered what was going on.

It wasn't too late, not even midnight yet. Sho knew that the Mizukage would still be awake, and decided that the office was the best place to find him. He climbed up the stairs to the first floor, and it was there that he saw his first opposition.

Mika and Yumi, the Mizukage's two kunoichi protectors, stood halfway down the hallway, as if they were expecting him. They were both ready for battle, and Sho could see a wall of ice behind them. _The Misty Ice Jutsu_, Sho figured. It was their specialty, an almost unbreakable wall of ice that would keep any foe out. More unnerving than that, however, was the realization that hit him when he looked at their expressions.

_They were expecting me,_ Sho realized. _They were aware of the coup the whole time, and if they knew about this…_ He couldn't think about the others though. The reluctantly faithful Hagume, his brother Mako and his protector Naishi, his own protector, Moren. They were all in grave danger, but Sho had to believe that they would be able to protect themselves.

Their coup was lost, they knew. If Hiroto knew about it, then he would have taken steps to ensure the loyalty of his ANBU, and would have poked a hole in every single preparation that they made. It looked like Plan B was going to be their only option. But the least he could do would be to finish his part of the plan. His mission was to kill the Mizukage, and he would make sure he did that, even if he lost his life in the process.

"How'd you know?" he asked the two kunoichi. Mika was armed with a longpole, an axe head on the top of it. Yumi, however, was wearing her custom arm plates, that had blades sticking out. She would fight close range with her bladed arms, while Mika would fight the medium-range with her longpole. It was lucky for Sho that he had just the weapon to fight them both off at once.

"You told one too many people," Yumi said, an angry look in her eyes.

"We won't let you kill Lord Mizukage," Mika ensured him. "To get to him, you'll have to get through us."

"Don't think I'll go easy on you because we were genin together," Sho told his former teammates. "If you stand in the way of liberation, then I must do what I must."

"That goes double for us," Yumi told him. Time for talk was over, he knew. Now it was time for action.

He pulled out his scroll and unsealed it. It unraveled in front of him, and he found the spot he needed. Six of the weapons were sealed here, the seventh still in possession of his last owner. He'd get it eventually, he knew. Chojuro didn't have long to live in the Prison of Death. "Summoning Jutsu," he said, and the great Mist sword Kabutowari materialized in his hands.

He could see the shocked looks the other two had. He never made his possession of the Great Ninja Swords known to all. He knew that with most of the last generation of swordmen dead, it was widely believed that the swords were lost. That was wrong. Kabutowari was the sword that once belonged to Jinin Akebino. It consisted of a large hammer and a giant axe, linked end-to-end by a flat thin leather-like rope. It was the ultimate attack weapon.

He rushed at the others, catching them off-guard. They recovered easily enough. Yumi put her arm out in front of her face so that the blades on her arm guards could stop the blade of his axe from slicing her head, while the axehead atop Mika's longpole served to stop the acceleration of Sho's hammer.

The three were caught in a deadlock, so Sho decided to push backwards and begin his next attack. He advanced on Yumi, swinging the hammer at her. Without being able to block a smashing attack, Yumi was forced to backflip to dodge the attacks. Sho pursued her, his hammer posing a threat to her defense. Finally, she was backed up against the ice wall, without anywhere to dodge. The hammer was lowered, but she dodged to the side. The hammer hit the ice squard in the middle, but didn't even crack it.

_Even if I can kill these two, how will I get through this ice barrier?_ Sho wondered. He was broken from his thoughts as he witnessed the hand seals Yumi was making.

"Lava Release: Magma Globs," Yumi said. Sho barely had time to dodge as the magma erupted from her mouth, flying towards him. He shouldn't have underestimated the kekkei-genkai style kunoichi. As he dodged, he felt the wind get knocked out of him, as Mika's longpole smashed into his stomach. He flew backwards, towards the wall, and he cursed himself. He'd underestimated Yumi and completely forgotten about Mika. He'd never win this battle if he couldn't get through them.

He picked himself back up and prepared to attack. He'd need to position himself so that he could separate them. Finally, he decided on a plan. He made a handsign and spoke: "Water Clone Jutsu." The clone pulled out the ninja weapon scroll, and spoke as well: "Summoning Jutsu." Kubikiribocho appeared in his hands, and the surprise on Yumi and Mika's faces was almost as much as it was when he'd summoned Kabutowari. They must now suspect that he has _all_ the weapons.

Kubikiribocho wasn't all that special. It was a very long butcher's sword, commonly known as the Executioner's Blade, which once belonged to Zabuza Momochi. It's only special power was that of regeneration, but it packed a hell of a punch. Sho and his clone rushed at the two, the clone focusing on Mika and her longpole, as the original focused on Yumi, the kekkei-genkai user.

From his years on Yumi's team, Sho knew that the only weakness of the Lava Release belonged to a barrage of Lightning Release, followed by Water Release. Sho could only use Water Release, so he had no chance of fighting it. He just had to avoid the attack until he was able to kill her with Kabutowari, or stop her from using Lava Release. He figured the second option would be the easiest.

He swung the axe and hammer at her in a quick barrage, a flurry of attacks keeping Yumi from making hand signs. She was an expert at dodging his attacks, however. He swung the axe first, at her head, so she bent backwards to avoid it. The axe sliced right above her, but she was now in a position where she couldn't immediately dodge until she recovered. Or at least that's what Sho thought. He swung the hammer downwards, but she managed to jump away, rolling on the ground before picking herself back up.

His clone wasn't faring much better. Mika's metal longpole was able to go toe-to-toe with Kubikiribocho. The metal clanged as they were brought together again and again. Whenever she had the opening, she attacked with the axehead. She knew that it would only take one good slice to stop the water clone. All she had to do was get past the sword once to land a hit. But no matter what attack either of them gave, the other was able to block with their own weapon. It was a battle of stalemates.

Sho knew he had to act fast. He needed to kill Hiroto before the coup was completely put down and reinforcements arrived. He decided that the need to find and kill the Mizukage was more important than this battle. He dispelled the clone as Mika swung at him with the pole, and she was surprised by the absence of an enemy. Kubikiribocho was dispelled as well, and Sho put his back towards the ice wall, and prepared his plan.

Mika and Yumi took the break to fall together and prepare a synchronized assault. As Mika swung her longpole axe at him, Sho swung the axe of Kabutowari at it, and the two clashed. Not a second later, he swung the hammer at Yumi, and she had no choice but to use the Lava Release to fight back.

Sho was able to jump up in time for the lava to miss, and hit the ice wall instead. It started to melt, and Yumi realized her mistake. She was never one to think things through very well, Sho knew. The ice melted almost completely, and Sho smiled at them from his place on the ceiling. He brought down the hammer of Kabutowari, and smashed the ceiling, allowing the roof to fall down on his adversaries. If they weren't dead, then they were at least incapacitated.

He didn't have time to mourn his former teammates or feel guilty. All he had time for now was Lord Mizukage. He rushed through the halls, turned left, then right, then left again, until he was finally at the Mizukage's office. Hiroto was waiting for him, and he had a shit-eating grin on his face.

"How did you know?" Sho asked him as they stood facing each other. He needed to know. Was it betrayal? Did he just not cover his tracks well enough? "Yumi told me I told one too many people," he said. "Who was it?"

"You had confidence in your jonin senseis," Hiroto said in a taunting manner. _So the fault was all mine,_ Sho observed. _I was the one who chose which senseis to tell, and I was the one who told them. It is all my fault._ "Achibiku will be promoted to your position for his loyalty, I think, as I let you join your friends in death."

_Damn him,_ Sho thought. He had believed Achibiku to be on his side more than any of the others. How could he be so blind?

"They're all dead by now," Hiroto taunted Sho about his allies. "After you left, loyal ninja attacked your little hideout and killed them all. Your brother, his protector, even that little ANBU traitor. Your protector managed to escape, I am told, but his injuries will have killed him by now.

"You never had a hope," Hiroto taunted. "We knew of your plans from the start. I'm saddened that you were able to kill Yumi and Mika to get to me, but I'm glad that _I'll_ have the pleasure of killing your traitor ass. And when you're dead, I'll have your entire clan exterminated. The useful ones will be sent to the Prison of Death to work at hard labor until they drop dead. You will be responsible for it all."

"You won't kill me here," Sho told the Mizukage. "I have allies out there, and we will return to kill your supporters. The entire village will be destroyed, but it will be a small price to pay. As soon as I kill you, I will join them, and we will begin our planning."

The Mizukage extended his hands towards Sho and glared at him. Suddenly, shards of ice flew out of his hands at Sho. One opened a gash along Sho's cheeks, but he managed to dodge the others. _How did he do that without hand signs?_ Sho wondered. The Mizukage being the last user of the Ice Release was no secret, but he didn't expect him to be able to use his kekkei-genkai without hand signs.

"Hidden Mist Jutsu," Sho said, and the entire room was clouded in mist. He would have to use the Silent Killing technique. He pulled the axe of Kabutowari up and began to attack. But suddenly, the mist condensed into water around the room, and the water began freezing. The ice surrounded Sho's feet, preventing Sho from moving. The Mizukage smirked triumphantly at Sho as the ice around the room shaped itself into many kunai and shuriken-shaped shards.

"You end here," the Mizukage said as the shards flew at Sho, piercing him in over twenty different spots. He was right – here was where Sho would die. He brought death to his friends and clan. He brought defeat to his coup. He failed his mission, just as he failed his friends, clan, and village. He wouldn't be remembered as a liberator. He would die a traitor. There would be no Plan B.

He didn't see Moren enter the office at the window, and neither did the Mizukage.

"Metal Release: Rusty Pole Jutsu," Sho's protector said. The Mizukage didn't have time to dodge as a rusty metal rod rose from the ground and pierced him in the leg. Hiroto fell to the ground, the rod still embedded in his calf, as Moren entered the office. He pulled all of the shards out of Sho's body one at a time and used his special kekkei-genkai to break the ice that had planted his feet to the ground.

Sho was bleeding badly. He needed medical attention, but they couldn't stay any longer. Moren looked back at Hiroto, and knew that Sho would want him to kill the Mizukage, but he didn't have time. He threw Sho over his shoulder and left out the window, hoping that the rusty rod would give the Mizukage a bad enough infection to kill him.

Sho felt the pain before he opened his eyes. It was as if his entire body was on fire. His chest, stomach, back, legs, arms, everything. He felt like he had been stabbed in fifty different places. When the memories flooded back, he realized he wasn't far off. He tried to sit up, but he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder.

"Shh," Moren told him. "You have to keep lying down. You need to heal."

"Moren," Sho breathed, relief evident in his voice. "Y-You're alive! I'm alive. Wh-What happened? Where are we?"

"We're at a fishing village on the northern coast of the main island," Moren told him. The Land of Water consisted of a bunch of islands, the largest one being in the center. It was where the daimyo were located, and where the Mist village had stood for decades. "We couldn't move you across the sea until you were treated. Your injuries were bad."

"They're still bad," Sho said with a wince. "What about you? Hiroto said you had an awful injury that would kill you." Sho looked at his protector, whose gaze shifted to his own leg. Sho followed his eyes, and saw an ugly gash in the calf, the same spot where Moren had attacked the Mizukage.

"They knew," Moren told Sho. "After you left, we were waiting to take action, when the safehouse was attacked. Mako and Naishi, Hagume. They were all killed. They almost got me too, but I escaped. I knew that they would kill you at the Mizukage mansion, and I arrived just in time.

"The ice had poison in it," Moren told him. "We're lucky that I was able to find a healer who could stop it. It entered in so many places, it's a miracle you're alive."

"How long has it been?" Sho asked.

"Two months."

"The Mizukage," Sho gasped. "Did you…?"

Moren shook his head. "You are my priority. I swore an oath to your father that I'd always protect you, and I keep my word. I had a boat ready for us to leave, should the plan fail. You'll be ready to travel in a few days as long as you don't aggravate your wounds. We'll set a course to the Land of Hot Water, and from there, we'll travel to the Land of Earth. It's all the way across the world; they'll never find us."

"I have a contingency plan in place," Sho revealed to his protector. "We'll have to get to the Land of Earth for it to happen, but we have to make sure Hiroto knows we're there."

"Why would we do that?" Moren asked. He was looking at Sho as if he was a lunatic. "We can get away from the village and their people. We can just live in peace."

"No, we must stop Hiroto, no matter what the cost," Sho said, his face darkening. "He killed my brother, and plans to kill the entire clan. We must destroy Hiroto."

"He's killed your entire clan," Moren confirmed. "But he's also loosened his restrictions. Word is that he realized that his totalitarianism was what brought forth this coup. Instead of tightening down, he's relaxing some of the laws. Even if we didn't remove Hiroto from power, life is slowly returning to normal in the village."

"I don't care," Sho shouted. "We aren't liberators anymore. They don't need us like they did before."

"Then why…" Moren began to ask, but Sho didn't wait for him to finish before he answered.

"I will avenge my people," Sho vowed. "I will destroy Hiroto and anyone who remains loyal to him. The plan will be revised, but I do not plan on giving up. This is personal now."

**Author's Note: If you're confused by the sword that Sho used in his battle, you can look up "Kabutowari" on Narutopedia. It's one of the swords of the 7 Swordsmen of the Mist.**

**Did you read the original story? Are you a regular ready of **Not Just Another Fake Boyfriend Story**who decided to try this out because of me? Is this your first time reading one of my stories? Please**** Review and check out my blog at **fanfics-sm . blogspot . com **for updates, chapter previews, and information about past, present, and future projects.**


	2. 1: The Offer

**Blanket Disclaimer: I don't own 'em.**

**Blanket warning: Spoilers of the manga. There will soon be some very graphic sexual scenes.**

**Author's Note: I was pleasantly surprised by the favorable reviews of the prologue. In this chapter, we finally get to see our favorite Naruto characters in the environment they know best. Enjoy!**

**This chapter was betaed by **SingingSparklyKuma**.**

Chapter 1: The Offer

A leaf flew through the air, blowing through the wind.

A small rodent scurried at the sound of an approaching human. It found its way to the home it had at the foot of a tall deciduous tree.

A frog in the nearby pond dived into the water to cool itself down on the hot, summer's day. Just feet away, a human hand dipped into the water, cupping some of the delightful liquid in its hand before splashing it on his face.

"We're almost there," the man said as the water droplets fell down his face. "I think it's about time you transform. We wouldn't want any Leaf ninja to see you."

"You're right," his traveling partner said as he took off his shoe. "Just let me get the sand out of my sandal first. And maybe take a nice cool dip in the water."

"We don't have time," the first man barked. "The Hokage's letter said she'd be awaiting us today at noon three kilometers south of the village's main entrance. We're nearing our deadline."

"Relax," the other man replied. "If Tsunade wants to see me so badly, she'll wait a few moments. We wouldn't want me to evaporate on the way there, would we?" The first man rolled his eyes as his partner finished shaking the sand out of his sandal and began to take off his clothes. In moments, he was standing in his underwear and beginning to submerge himself in the water. "It's really nice in here. You sure you don't want to take a swim?"

"You have three minutes," was the first man's only reply. "No more." His partner shrugged as he dived into the water. The first man watched as a small, green leaf blew in the wind towards the pile of sand before settling on top of the mound. He could hear the bird calls in the sky and he sighed, leaning back. Maybe his partner was right. It was such a beautiful day; he should enjoy it.

Nevertheless, he had a mission. He had to escort his partner to the Village Hidden in the Leaves to meet with the leader of said village, Tsunade. As soon as the three minutes were up, he alerted his partner, who sighed and stepped out of the water.

"I have the clothes you're supposed to wear to disguise yourself," the man said, pulling out a vest from his bag.

"And what's wrong with my clothes?" his partner demanded. "I'll be using a transformation jutsu. They won't know who I am based on my clothes."

"They're orange," the first man said, as if that was his entire argument. Actually, it _was_ his entire argument. But his partner complied, dressing himself in the garb that had been picked out for him. When he was finally dressed, he pressed his right index and middle finger to his left index and middle finger, creating a hand sign.

"Transform," he said. The first man watched as his partner's yellow blonde hair became a dull black, his sparkling cerulean eyes became a plain pair of brown eyes, and his stature grow a couple of inches. When the transformation was complete, his partner smiled. At least the smile was the same. Always infectious. "C'mon, Baki. We have an old woman to meet."

The two left the pond that they'd stopped at, and traveled through the trees to their destination. They were not going to be going to the Leaf village, as the meeting that Naruto and Tsunade were to be having was a secret one. No one could know that they were going to meet. The four of them – as Tsunade's aide was likely to attend – would be heading to a nearby village, where they would drink sake in a private, back room of a small tavern. No one – apart from the four of them – would know what transpired there.

They made great time, despite their three-minute stop at a pond. In fact, the Hokage had arrived just moments before Baki and Naruto – with her aide, just as Baki predicted.

"Naruto," Tsunade said as the two approached. "It's been a while." While Baki stopped a couple of yards away from Tsunade and Shizune, Naruto continued until he was giving Tsunade a bone-crushing hug.

"It has," Naruto said as he pulled away and hugged Shizune. "You guys should visit Suna more often." The four began to walk as soon as Naruto stopped hugging the two women from his past.

"You know better than anyone that a Hokage can't just leave her village whenever she wants to," Tsunade said with a smile. "Congratulations on your marriage, by the way. I meant to give you a gift, but I never had the time to bring it over."

"It's not like I live across town anymore, huh?" Naruto said as they walked. Baki continued to remain silent. He didn't really belong there. Naruto knew these people well. He didn't. He was only there because the Kazekage didn't want Naruto to be unescorted as he crossed the world towards his old home.

Baki continued to remain silent during the small talk that Tsunade, Naruto and Shizune made about people who still lived in Konoha. He recognized a few names – Jiraya, Sasuke Uchiha and his wife Sakura, Rock Lee, and Kakashi Hatake. Then there were names he didn't recognize – someone named Ayame who seemed to work at his favorite ramen stand in the village, for one. But it wasn't long before they sauntered into the nearby village and arrived at the tavern that they were going to take care of some official business in.

"I assume that there's some important reason you asked me here, Granny Tsunade," Naruto reasoned. "After all, if you just wanted to hang out a bit, you probably wouldn't go through all these official channels."

Tsunade sighed loudly, and the entire climate of the room changed. Now they were finally getting back down to business. Good. Baki didn't really like feeling like a fourth wheel.

"This is very official, Naruto," Tsunade said. She didn't really elaborate. Naruto was slightly surprised that she hadn't jumped down his throat for being so disrespectful by calling her the old nickname she'd never liked. Naruto looked at her, and he almost snorted as he realized that Tsunade looked exactly the same as she did years ago. That was her – never aging gracefully. She constantly used her jutsu to look young. She had to be seventy or eighty years old by now. It was kind of ridiculous that she looked like the youngest person at the table.

"So what's up?" Naruto asked, all of a sudden becoming somber. Obviously something was off if their happy, reminiscent mood had shifted so quickly.

It was Shizune who responded, pulling out a large manila envelope and placing it on the table. "Earlier this week, this was sent in to the village. We don't know who sent it." She slid the envelope across the table, and Baki exchanged a glance with Naruto. The blond grabbed the envelope and opened it, dumping its contents on the table.

There were about fifteen pictures of different angles of the same scenes – a man, lying in his own blood, a small sword stuck in his stomach. In each photograph, however, the man's face was completely unobscured – black hair framing a rugged face; two eyes that showed an expression of horror. The last time Naruto had seen those eyes, they had been sparkling with a sick joy as he plunged a knife in Naruto's chest.

"Is this…real?" Naruto asked, passing the images to Baki for him to see.

"As far as we can tell," Tsunade said. "It took longer than we thought, but it seems he's really dead."

Naruto was silent. He wasn't expecting this. A part of him felt such relief – the one person who truly wanted to kill Naruto was gone from this world. The person who threatened all who he loved was dead. But he also felt an apprehension that he hadn't felt since his arrival in Suna nineteen years ago. What did this mean for him?

"I think I know where you're going with this," Naruto said, his eyes closed. He looked down at his lap, feeling the eyes on him. "Now that Harame's dead, you want me to come back to the Leaf village, right?" He didn't need a confirmation to know that everyone at the table was awaiting his answer.

"I told you years ago when you came to Suna that I didn't want to go back," Naruto began. "Back then, it was because I was sure that I would be a magnet for Harame, and everyone in the village would be in trouble. 'The easiest thing to do would be to just wait until he died' were my exact words.

"But I can't go back," he said with a sigh. "I have a family now. Suna is my home. Gaara is my husband. I love him, and I love Suna. I miss Konoha – I really do," he added, looking up at Tsunade again. "But if I come back, it'll rip open a new wound for everyone – Sasuke, Sakura, Jiraya, Iruka, even me."

"They have a right to know, Naruto," Tsunade said. "You only did this all to protect them."

"I left them," Naruto whispered. "I know I was protecting them, but I can't imagine how they felt. Saying goodbye at my funeral; mourning me. They all think I'm dead; why should they know any different?"

"They still miss you," Tsunade said. "Sasuke –"

"He has Sakura now," Naruto interjected. "And I have Gaara. We've all moved on."

"You haven't seen him, Naruto," Tsunade said. "He's content with his life: he has a beautiful wife, three wonderful children, and a ton of friends; but just because he's content doesn't mean he's happy." Naruto remained silent. "He still goes to your grave daily. I saw him there last week when I went to visit Dan. He'd be so happy to see you again."

"That makes it worse!" Naruto exclaimed. "If I came back, we could never go back to how we used to be. There's no reason to rip open these wounds."

The table fell silent, and Tsunade took a swig of the sake. Moment passed, and the moments became minutes. Finally, when it seemed like someone had just pressed the pause button on life, Tsunade looked up again.

"Shizune, Baki, please leave us alone for a moment," Tsunade requested. Shizune nodded and got up from the table, but Baki remained.

"It's okay, Baki," Naruto said. "She just wants to talk alone." Baki nodded and followed Shizune out of the back room. Even after the door clicked behind him, Tsunade didn't speak. In fact, Naruto was about to speak up just to fill the silence when Tsunade finally spoke.

"It's a miracle I'm still alive," Tsunade said. "I shouldn't have lived passed the Fourth Shinobi World War, but I managed to survive. Very few people can say that they've lived up to such an old age as I. But I know I don't have long. The fact that I've lived so long – through three world wars, almost 25 years as Hokage in peace and strife – is truly a miracle."

"Way to get morbid, baa-chan," Naruto muttered with a small smirk on his face.

"My death is near, Naruto," Tsunade said. "I've outlived people generations younger than I, and I can feel it coming. I want you to return to the village so that I can groom you to become Hokage."

The room fell silent. Tsunade and Naruto both knew what this meant. Ever since he was a kid, Naruto had wanted to be Hokage. It was always his goal, his dream. But so much had changed. He wasn't that little twelve year old spouting off about becoming the strongest ninja in the world. For a while, he actually _was_ the strongest ninja in the world. In fact, he wasn't sure exactly how many powerful ninja had risen to prominence in other villages since his 'death', but he was sure he was still in the top 10. He was even more powerful than Gaara, although power wasn't something they usually talked about. After all, Naruto had mostly left fighting behind him.

He was now the academy instructor in Suna. He knew when he had relocated from Kumo to Suna about a year after he had to fake his death that he wouldn't be allowed to be a shinobi. If he ended up using too much power, he would reveal exactly who he was to the world. Even worse, he could end up facing a former comrade as a ninja from an enemy village. He was destined to a life inside the village.

It didn't take long to figure out that he wanted to be a ninja instructor. Iruka-sensei had so affected him as a little kid that he wanted to be able to provide that experience for others. And despite the fact that he was no longer in active duty and he was supposed to be dead, there was an unspoken agreement between him and Gaara that he was to be the successor to his husband as Kazekage.

"I know there are a lot of things that you have to think over," Tsunade said quietly as Naruto absorbed the information. "I know there are others who could be the Sixth Hokage – Sasuke, Konohamaru, or Shikamaru, for starters. Heck, there are kids younger than them who would do the title of Hokage justice. But still, there's only one person who has been able to wear the First's necklace and survive."

Naruto's hand subconsciously went to clasp the necklace that hadn't hung around his neck in decades. A memento from his life as a Konoha shinobi, the necklace was the promise that Naruto could one day be Hokage.

"Ever since you were able to put on that necklace and survive, I've had my heart set on you being my successor," Tsunade admitted. "You were able to defend me from Kabuto back then, even before you really came into your power. You befriended Kurama and managed to convince Pain to revive all the ninja he killed in his invasion. You were able to battle Madara Uchiha and Tobi, and you saved the world in the Fourth Shinobi World War."

"I haven't really fought in years," Naruto admitted. "I still practice my taijutsu and senjutsu, but I don't even remember the last time I made a shadow clone or a Rasengan."

"You'd have time," Tsunade assured him. "I'm not dying tomorrow, kid."

"I'm forty and you're still calling me a kid," Naruto snorted.

"Old habits die hard," Tsunade said with a smirk. "Look, just think about it, alright? I know more than a few people who would be overjoyed to see the old war hero return to Konoha."

"I'll think about it," Naruto said. "But I don't see how that would work. Especially since I'm married to the Kazekage of another village."

"A village that has been our ally for a quarter of a century," Tsunade pointed out. "I don't think there's too much of a chance you two will be in conflict."

"The daimyo would never allow it," Naruto said with a laugh. "And I'm sure I won't be getting the jonin's vote of approval after living in Suna for so long."

"Why don't you let _me_ deal with them," Tsunade said. "While I have nothing on you, I can be pretty persuasive when I want to be." Naruto went quiet. "Besides, I've already thought of that. While I groom you to be Hokage, you'd take on a genin team to train. You could show the elders and the rest of the village that you are still loyal to Konoha." Naruto went quiet once more at her words.

His own genin team? He felt something funny in his stomach when he thought of it. He never really stopped to consider what would happen if he became a jonin sensei.

"I told you I'll think about it, and I will," Naruto said. "But I don't make any promises."

"I don't think I could have expected any better," Tsunade said with a smile. "You want to go and join Shizune and Baki?"

"Sure," Naruto said, standing up from the table. And while he walked alongside Baki, Tsunade and Shizune, he was a million miles away.

Baki and Naruto made great time on their journey back to Suna. The normally three-day journey took just over two days to make. Although that could be chalked up to Naruto refusing to stop until he got back home. He just couldn't wait to share what happened with Gaara. The more he thought about Konoha, the more he wanted to go back – even if just for a little visit to let everyone know he was alive.

So many people had moved on. Sasuke had married Sakura – that much he knew. Tsunade told him they had a few children, which didn't surprise him. Sasuke was all about reviving his clan. Then there was Shikamaru and Ino. He knew that they ended up together, too. He remembered consoling Temari when the news of their marriage hit Suna.

But what about everyone else? He knew that Jiraya was alive – the death of the great Toad Sage would have definitely hit them if it happened, and Tsunade definitely would have told him had something happened to him. He was sure Kakashi was alive too. But what about Iruka? Konohamaru? What had happened to them? Did they settle down with nice girls? Did they have kids? What about Kiba and Hinata? Did they finally work out their issues and get together? Neji and Tenten? What happened to Lee and Choji?

Thoughts about all his old friends recurred through Naruto's mind the entire way home. In fact, he was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't even realize that they had gotten so far so soon.

After arriving in the village, Baki went to the Kazekage office to inform him that they were back, but Naruto went to get some ice cream. After all, the heat in Suna during the summer was excruciating, and he hadn't had a chance to cool down with his nonstop movement from Konoha to Suna.

After getting his ice cream cone, he turned to walk back towards the Hokage mansion, his home, when he saw one of his academy students working on rebuilding one of the buildings lost in the recent attack.

That was one reason that Naruto was hesitant to go back to Konoha. While in reality, he didn't really do much in Suna in the grand scheme of things, he was still able to help in the rebuilding effort. Just two and a half weeks ago, the village had been attacked.

It had been the first time Naruto had really fought in a while. It seemed to come out of nowhere. Gaara had been busy fighting one of the invaders, and Naruto went to fight another after he helped evacuate the civilians. But it was really Temari's daughter that shined in this crisis. While Temari and Kankuro had been out on missions, Shiminama had really stepped up and fought the mastermind behind the attack. They were able to repel the attackers, and Shiminama quickly became a sung hero in the village. But despite their victory, there was still a lot of rebuilding to do.

"Good to see you helping out, Yara," Naruto called out to his student, who was currently helping get rid of the rubble of a fallen building for the builders. After hearing Naruto's voice, the boy, Yara, looked up at Naruto with a smile.

"Hi Naruto-sensei!" he called with a wave. "Do you want to help out?"

"I'd love to, Yara, but I have to go back home to talk to Kazekage-sama," Naruto said. "I just got back from a mission to Konoha, and I'm sure he wants to hear from me how it went."

"Alright," Yara said. "I guess I'll see you on Monday."

By the time Naruto had returned to the Kazekage mansion, he had already finished his ice cream and was hungry again. He passed the door to Gaara's office, where Gaara was currently talking with the elders, and made his way to the kitchen, where he found Temari.

"You're back," she observed as she chopped vegetables for some soup. Naruto wondered how she planned on eating hot soup when it was boiling outside. He, instead, chose to get some lemonade from the fridge.

"Keen observation," Naruto said sarcastically with a smirk.

"So what did Tsunade want?" Temari asked, ignoring Naruto's smart-ass response.

"She, uh, told me that Harame Mogiko was killed," Naruto admitted as he finished pouring his lemonade. He put the cup to his lips and began to gulp down the cool liquid before setting the cup back on the counter and pouring another glass. "She also wanted me to go back to the village."

"What did you say?" Temari asked as she put the vegetables in the pot on the stove.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Naruto replied sourly.

"What's with the attitude? I was just asking a question," Temari said, giving Naruto a pointed look.

"Yeah, well it was a stupid one," Naruto muttered, turning the leave the kitchen.

"What's with you, Mr. Sunshine?" Temari asked sarcastically. "You'd think someone told you that you couldn't eat ramen for a month."

"It's nothing," Naruto said as he left the kitchen. He didn't really want to get into it with Temari. As much as he loved his sister-in-law, they tended to get on each other's nerves more than anyone else. They were just so opposite – Naruto was always optimistic and loud, while Temari was reserved and realistic. And he knew that if he told her about Tsunade's offer to become Hokage, that she would psychoanalyze him and turn this into a huge ordeal. Well, it was, but it was something he wanted to talk with Gaara about, not with Temari.

He saw that Gaara was still in with the elders, so he decided to go for a walk in the greenhouse. In the many years that Naruto had lived in Suna, the village had changed so much. He remembered when he went there after Gaara had been kidnapped by Akatsuki years ago – the village was mostly buildings made of sand and earth on a desert with some walls around it. Now, the ground was still all sand, but there was a distinct difference. Larger buildings, a man-made training ground, and different areas that were made fertile for farming. In the back of the Kazekage mansion was a large greenhouse that housed a variety of herbs and plants that were grown for the hospital in the village.

Naruto loved the greenhouse. The air was fresh there, and even in the heat, it felt like springtime. The place just felt so…serene.

He finally let his thoughts drift to the one place he'd been keeping them from drifting to – Sasuke. If he actually went through with this whole thing for some ridiculous reason, he'd have to face Sasuke. They used to be so in love – his stomach still bubbled when he thought of his ex. Their relationship never really had closure after the disaster that happened on their wedding day. And now, Naruto was "dead".

He knew that if he went back, one of two things would happen: Sasuke would either forsake Sakura and his family for him, or he would tell Naruto that he had moved on in the last two decades. Naruto cringed when he realized that he wasn't sure which reaction would be worse. He loved Gaara; he really did. But he had only let himself get over Sasuke by telling himself that he'd never see him again. He didn't know how he would feel if he was around Sasuke all the time.

"You should stop thinking so hard. I can see the smoke coming out of your ears," came a voice from behind Naruto. Naruto smiled and sighed as he turned around to see his husband, Gaara, in the flesh. "You should have come here right when you got back."

"I wanted ice cream," Naruto pouted. "Besides, you still had stuff to take care of."

"That can all wait," Gaara said. "What happened with Tsunade?"

Naruto sat down next to a particularly tall tree that provided a lot of shade and patted the ground next to him, indicating that Gaara should sit down. Gaara complied, and Naruto wasted no time in leaning his head on his husband's shoulder.

"Tsunade wants me to become Hokage," Naruto said with a sigh, noting how Gaara stiffened beneath him. "Well, first she wants me to take a genin team and get groomed, but she told me that she plans on retiring or dying soon, and that she wants me to be her successor.

"What about Harame?" Gaara asked in his usual, even tone.

"He's dead," Naruto said. "They got a bunch of pictures of his dead body."

"It wouldn't be the first time someone faked their death," Gaara said, nudging Naruto, who smirked.

"Nah, she's pretty sure he's gone," Naruto said. "She says that I should let everyone know I'm alive now, and take her place as Hokage."

"What did you say?" Gaara asked, sounding as if none of this really affected him one way or the other. Naruto was used to the very monotonous tone by now, but he still wished that Gaara would show more emotion outside of the bedroom sometimes.

"I told her no, of course," Naruto said. "She wanted me to think about it, but there's really nothing to think about."

"Of course there is," Gaara said. "You can't just brush off the offer to become Hokage."

"Kazekage is just as good," Naruto said indignantly. "Suna is my home now."

"It's not the same," Gaara said. "You have the Will of Fire. It's the village your father was Hokage of. It's the village you grew up in. It's the village that you've saved from many people – including me. You can't just brush it off."

"This is my village now," Naruto repeated. "I don't want to leave here. I don't want to leave you."

"You wouldn't have to," Gaara said, looking up at the sky through the leaves of the tree they sat under. He felt Naruto lift his head off Gaara's shoulder.

"What do you mean? Part of being the Hokage is…you know…living in the actual village that I'm the Hokage of. It kind of comes with the job."

"I know that," Gaara said, closing his eyes. "It's weird to think that Tsunade-sama is going to be gone soon. I mean, it's not surprising. It's amazing that she's made it this far. But she's still the only kage left from the Fourth Shinobi World War."

"It was your first real international conflict as Kazekage," Naruto said. Gaara nodded.

"I learned a lot from the kage then," Gaara said. "Fighting with them against Madara Uchiha was something unprecedented in our world. But after the war, we returned to our individual villages and went on. The Mist got a new Mizukage; the Stone got a new Tsuchikage; the Cloud got a new Raikage. It's just Tsunade and I left from back then. And she won't even be here much longer.

"I think a lot of the relative peace that has existed since that war has been because of us," Gaara said. "Without changing leaders, we were able to keep stability in our own nations, and thus maintain a prosperous alliance. Iwa has gone through three Tsuchikage since Oonoki died, and Kiri has had two Mizukage since Mei. The only nations with true stability and prosperity have been Konoha and Suna, and I like to think that she and I are the reasons why.

"But I think the chapter is ending soon," Gaara said, sitting up straighter. "I can feel the winds of change, and I can tell something big is coming. It might not be for a year or two, or even five, but something is happening."

"You always speak like that," Naruto mused. "So prophetic, always in metaphors. It's endearing, but right now I'm really not in the mood to decipher you."

"Part of the reason Konoha has always been the most prosperous of ninja villages is because they have a strong Will of Fire," Gaara said. "The shinobi are strong, not in power, but in ideals. That is was separated them from everyone else. You could only have been such a harbinger of peace back then because of how idealistic Konoha is. And part of that Will of Fire is passing those ideals down to the next generation.

"I think it's time that Suna adopts a similar will, and begins to pass down the torch to the next generation as well," Gaara concluded.

"Do you mean you want to retire?" Naruto asked.

"Suna is rebuilding after our first real crisis since the war," Gaara said. "We're in a shifting world right now, and I think it is time that someone new steps up to the plate. It's best that someone takes my place now. I would really hate to think that the village would have to scurry to find a new Kazekage if I were to die suddenly."

"Whoa, hold on there," Naruto said, sitting up straighter to look his husband in the eyes. He placed his hands on Gaara's chest. "You're not dying so soon."

"I almost did," Gaara said lifting his sleeve to show the scar he acquired in the recent attack. "As time goes on, we become stronger, and there will be even stronger enemies of Suna in the future. The peace is slowly coming to an end – I can tell by the way that Iwa has been starting to arm and Kumo has reverted to its old habits of trying to steal techniques from other villages. I think it's time I retire and let someone else take the lead of the village."

"Someone like me?" Naruto asked.

"That was always my plan," Gaara admitted. "Even if you've been out of action for a while, you are the strongest ninja in the village. You have the power that Kurama gave you, the Sage Mode, your almost limitless chakra supply, among other things. You're strong willed, and you value peace among all else. You would be a perfect candidate for Kazekage."

"I feel a 'but' coming on," Naruto muttered.

"But," Gaara said, prompting a snort from Naruto. "I think you becoming the Kazekage would be more trouble than it's worth. For one thing, when word gets out that you're alive, we'll have about a dozen or so guests from Konoha here looking for answers, and we'd become so shrouded in drama that it would be hard to really oversee the village. It's not practical."

"You sound like you already have someone in mind," Naruto mused.

"I do," Gaara said. "I was talking with the elders, and they agree with my decision."

"That was what you were speaking with the elders about?" Naruto asked. "You didn't want to talk about it with me before deciding to step down?"

"I picked Kankuro, and they agreed," Gaara said. "They are sure he'll get approval from the daimyo and the jonin after all the years he spent doing some of the more…unsavory tasks that the title of Kazekage carried in my place. And I won't be stepping down for a while. I still need to transition him into power if he accepts the position."

"This is great and all, but I don't understand what this has to do with me becoming the Hokage," Naruto said with a yawn as a thought struck him. "Unless you mean…"

"If you wanted to take the offer, I would be fine with it," Gaara said. "Either way, I'll be done with being Kazekage soon. I'm sure some people in the village will have a problem with it, but I wouldn't be opposed to relocating to Konoha. I could be an official liaison between the villages or something."

"I don't want to leave Suna, though," Naruto said. "I like it here."

"Then don't take the job," Gaara said with a shrug. "Just know that I won't stand in your way. In fact, it may even be nice to have a little change in scenery." Gaara stood up and ran his fingers through Naruto's hair. "I love you."

"I love you too," Naruto said.

"I'll let you think about it."

It wasn't until the sun had set and the temperature had dropped drastically that Naruto had finally come up with a decision.

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	3. 2: Return

**This chapter was betaed by** SingingSparklyKuma.

Chapter 02: Return

The breeze was nice and refreshing as Tsunade stood at the gate to Konoha, awaiting the return of one of her strongest ninja from a dangerous mission to the Land of Lightning. There was a bandit who was posing as a Konoha ninja and ambushing travelers entering the country from the southern border with the Land of Hot Water. Tsunade knew this bandit had to be handled before an international incident started, so she dispatched her most successful ANBU agent.

Suddenly, a figure appeared on the horizon, and even though Tsunade couldn't see his face, she could tell who that raven black hair belonged to any day. She waited patiently for Sasuke to re-enter the village, and she didn't have to wait long. All that was shared between them was a simple nod of the head and she knew that the issue was taken care of.

She turned to walk back into the village with Sasuke, leaving the shinobi on guard duty alone at the gate. At first, they were silent as they walked down the path, but soon, he removed his hawk-shaped mask from his face and brushed his hair from his eyes.

"Any problems come up?" Tsunade asked as the buildings in the main business district came into view.

"The bandit was taken down with relative ease, considering the wide breadth of his attacks," Sasuke summed up. "But there is some troubling information that I gathered inside the Land of Lightning about the Cloud Village."

"Unless it's of the utmost importance, you can return to Sakura and give me the full report tomorrow," Tsunade said, receiving a nod from the ANBU. "Oh, and Sasuke?" she asked as the black-haired man began to walk away. He turned around to face her and she smiled. "I have a guest coming to the village later today. We have a few things to talk over, but I want you and Sakura to be there to see him."

"Who is it?" Sasuke asked. "Should we bring the kids or leave them?"

"I don't think you'll want your kids here for this," Tsunade said. "Oh, and if you see Kakashi, tell him that he must be there as well. I want you there at about 5:00. So maybe tell him to be there at 4:30 and he'll show up on time." With a nod, Sasuke disappeared from her view, and Tsunade turned towards the Hokage mansion.

When she returned to her office, she slid open her drawer and pulled out the letter that she'd received a few days ago from the Sand village. Naruto would be returning to the Leaf, and if he was going to take her offer, then he would have to reveal himself to the ninja of the village. At first, she wanted to invite everyone, but Shizune thought better. They didn't want to overwhelm Naruto, did they? So they decided to just invite the people who needed to hear this most: Jiraya, Kakashi, Iruka, Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto could see the others later, on his own time.

She was so deep in thought that she hadn't even noticed that the very person she was thinking about had been sitting in her office since before she walked in.

"Baa-chan?" Naruto asked, breaking Tsunade from her thoughts.

"Naruto!" Tsunade exclaimed, surprised. "You're here! How did you slip past the village's security?"

"A man has his secrets," Naruto said with a grin. "Now, I'm pretty sure we have to talk a few things over."

"So does this mean you've accepted my deal?" Tsunade asked hopefully. "I admit I was a little surprised to get your letter."

"I will be happy to accept your offer," Naruto said with a bow of his head. "It was a hard decision to make, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about the Leaf since our meeting. I know this is the right thing to do."

"Good," Tsunade said. "When do you plan on moving back into the village?"

"I'm ready to move in today if that's fine by you," Naruto replied. "I brought a bag of things that I'll need before Gaara comes with the rest of my things."

"Gaara?" Tsunade asked, surprised. "Gaara's coming here?"

Naruto nodded. "A couple of days ago he told me he was going to retire, and he had already spoken to the elders about it before I had even told him of your offer. So he's going to stay in Suna for another month or so to help transition the Sixth Kazekage into power before coming here."

"That changes things," Tsunade said. "I was going to invite you to stay here until you take over for me officially, but if your husband is going to be joining you, I'm sure you'll want a place of your own."

"We can talk about that later," Naruto said with a shrug. "He's still in Suna for the time being."

"Have you given any thought to how you want to tell people you're alive?" Tsunade asked. Silence fell over the room as Naruto looked at the ground, thinking this over. How exactly could he tell people? Did he want everyone to know at once, or did he want to see them individually? Should he let Tsunade tell them the entire story behind his "death", or should he do it himself? "I invited Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Jiraya, and Iruka to come over here this evening. I was thinking you'd like to tell them first, and you could speak to the others later or tomorrow."

Naruto nodded, still pondering his decision in his head. "I'm going to find something to eat," he said, standing up. "I can't wait until I can walk out on the streets and get some Ichiraku." Tsunade smiled and nodded, allowing her soon-to-be successor to leave her office.

No one was surprised in the least when it was Kakashi who arrived last, strolling into the Hokage's office a half hour late. He figured that if it was really important that he be there, they'd wait for him.

It was odd, standing in the same room as Jiraya, Tsunade, Iruka, Sasuke and Sakura. He immediately drifted over to Iruka, but couldn't help but wonder what would prompt Tsunade to summon them all to her office.

"I have some very important news to share with the five of you," Tsunade said seriously. She was hunched forward, leaning her chin on her hands, whose fingers were intertwined. She looked from Jiraya to Sasuke to Kakashi, and then finally to Shizune, who was standing at the door, waiting to allow the guest of honor to enter.

Taking her cue, Shizune knocked twice on the door and stepped to the side. The door clicked and opened slowly, revealing the figure of the blond shinobi who had not seen any of these faces in twenty years. All eyes turned towards the doorway, and Naruto watched as five sets of eyes went from showing looks of confusion to looks of shock.

"H-Hey guys," Naruto said after a long silence, scratching his cheek nervously with an impish grin on his face, as if he had just been caught trying to prank somebody. "Uh…what's up?"

To his credit, it was Iruka who had managed to speak first. "What is this?" he asked. Naruto fidgeted under the gaze of the five guests who had not once taken their eyes off him. He was pretty sure that Sakura hadn't even allowed herself to blink yet.

"What kind of trick is this?" Sasuke snapped, turning his head towards Tsunade with an angry glare in place. "It's _not_ funny."

"This isn't a trick, Sasuke," Naruto said. His voice seemed to magically snap Sasuke out of his anger. His expression was one of awe and confusion mixed together as he slowly turned his head back towards the blond. "I'm alive." Cue another tense silence.

"How?" Sakura asked finally, her voice sounding hoarse. She cleared her throat and repeated her question.

"It's a long story," he replied. "But then again, I guess I owe it to all of you to tell you guys, huh?"

"This isn't a trick?" Kakashi asked. "You're for real?" Naruto nodded seriously.

"I was never dead," Naruto said, looking down at the floor. "I faked my death." Another couple moments of silence before Sakura spoke up once more.

"Why?"

"I think _I_ should explain," Tsunade said, redirecting most of the room's attention on her. Only one pair of obsidian eyes lingered in his direction before finally turning to face the Hokage with the rest. "You all remember the attack on the village twenty years ago by Harame Mogiko, correct?"

"How could we forget?" Sakura asked, her fingers brushing the scar that lingered on her throat after the attack. It was a day that few would ever forget.

"Naruto found out exactly why Harame decided to attack the village," Tsunade continued. "That led us to the decision that ultimately, Naruto should fake his death."

"What did he find out?" Jiraya asked before having a small coughing fit. Naruto was going to ask if he was alright, but he saw that no one else was reacting to this except for Tsunade, who was giving her former teammate a look of utter concern.

"Harame Mogiko attacked the Leaf and destroyed so much for one simple reason," Tsunade said quietly. "He wanted to kill Naruto." She allowed her listeners to absorb this before continuing with her story. "Naruto didn't take him as a serious threat until his squad was ambushed on a mission to Iwa."

"I remember," Kakashi said. "Naruto was the only one on the squad to survive the ambush." All eyes turned to him. "But I didn't know that it was Harame who was behind it."

Tsunade nodded grimly. "Naruto came to me immediately after the mission, and we'd decided on a plan. He would be assigned a mission with an ANBU squad, who would escort him to Killer B's home in an outlying village near Kumo," she said. "The squad would leave him there, and the word would spread that Naruto was killed on this mission. This would give Harame no reason to attack the Leaf village or undermine our missions. It would be temporary while I dispatched an ANBU team to find and assassinate Harame, and then Naruto would return. We expected it to take a week or two. A month, tops."

Tsunade paused, waiting for someone to ask a question. Like 'Why couldn't you tell the people closest to him?', or 'Why did you resort to such drastic measures so soon?'. When no such question came, Tsunade decided to continue.

"But it took much longer," she admitted. "Our first squad finally found him after a month and a half, but they were annihilated. One arm of one of the squad members was sent back to the village as a message that he wouldn't be killed. I sent three more squads after him, but all three ended up being killed.

"Then he attacked Killer B," Tsunade said, shocking the others. "Naruto was nowhere nearby when it happened, so his cover was safe, but Harame had a bone to pick with B as well, it seems. B survived the battle, but the entire village he lived in was destroyed, and most of the villagers were killed. When B moved back to the Cloud Village, Naruto decided he'd relocate to the Sand village. Gaara took him in, and he has been living there ever since."

"Why would Harame attack B?" Kakashi asked. "I thought he only attacked us here because he had a beef with Naruto. If he didn't know Naruto was staying with B, what was the point?"

"He hated B for the same reason he hated me," Naruto said, commanding the attention of everyone in the room once more. "We were the ones who defeated his master, Tobi." Silence fell over the room as the statement was absorbed. "Tobi had been training Harame before the war, and stopped the training when war broke out. When we had defeated Tobi and stopped the Eye of the Moon Plan, Harame decided to take revenge on B and I."

"So why are you back _now_?" Iruka asked Naruto. "If you have been living in Suna all this time, why come back now?"

"Harame is finally dead," Tsunade said. "We don't know how or why, but we were anonymously sent some pretty concrete evidence that he was killed."

"So that's the story," Naruto said. "I'm alive, and I'm going to be living here again."

As soon as he finished speaking, Naruto found himself trapped in a bear hug from Iruka. Kakashi and Jiraya also approached him to hug him after Iruka let go, and then Sakura hugged him as well. Everyone seemed to be talking at once, saying things like "I'm so glad you're here" and "This is so surreal" and "If you ever fake your death again, I'll kill you". As he was bombarded by questions about how life had been for the last twenty years, he looked up to see the back of a black-haired head as it left the room, slamming the door behind it. A hush fell over the room.

"Don't mind him, Naruto," Sakura said soothingly. "He's just in shock. We all are. It's a lot to take in." Naruto nodded as he continued answering questions about his life in Suna. Iruka was so proud when Naruto told him that he was an academy instructor there, which led him to reveal that he'd be leading a genin team in the future.

But it seemed like the one thing that everyone was avoiding asking was the state of Naruto's love life. Naruto had dropped hints about living in the Kazekage mansion with Gaara and having a comfortable relationship, but it seemed no one really wanted to bring that up at the moment. And he sort of understood why. Sasuke was now married to Sakura; he knew that. It would be very awkward to talk about love lives while his friend was married to his ex.

About ten minutes later, Tsunade decided to kick them all out of her office so that she could actually do some work. Naruto walked with them until they were standing outside the guest quarters of the mansion where he was going to be staying.

"We have to get together and really talk soon," Sakura said, kissing Naruto on the cheek before leaving. "And I promise, Sasuke will come around. He's happy; I know it."

"Thanks," Naruto said as she left the hallway. He turned to the others.

"It's good to see you back, kid," Jiraya said with a smile, suppressing a cough. "I'll take you out to Ichiraku's tomorrow. I'm sure Ayame will love to see you. That poor ramen shop lost most of its business when you left."

"I'll see you tomorrow," Naruto said with a smile before returning his gaze to Iruka and Kakashi. "I guess I'll see you guys soon too, huh?" he asked.

"You're damn right," Iruka said. "I still can't believe you're here. A part of me still thinks I'm going to wake up tomorrow and this will all be a dream." Suddenly, Iruka yelped, and Kakashi removed his fingers from his ass. "I didn't tell you to pinch me," he muttered to Kakashi.

"I just wanted to reassure you that you're not dreaming," Kakashi said with a smile. "We'll see you soon, Naruto." With that, Kakashi and Iruka left Naruto alone, standing outside of his room. As he pulled out the key to his room, he thought over the people he'd have to see tomorrow and tell the story of his "death" to. There was Shikamaru and Ino, he knew. And Choji. Then there was Hinata and Kiba, Neji and Tenten, Lee and Konohamaru…a bunch of people.

He slowly opened his door and turned on the light, surprised to see that someone was already sitting on his bed. He had been dreading this moment since the second he'd decided that he'd return to the Leaf, and a part of him was relieved when Sasuke left the office earlier. It just meant the confrontation would be put off for a while.

"Sasuke," Naruto whispered, his eyes closing. He _really_ didn't want to do this right now. But it didn't matter, because Naruto knew it was going to happen. And he knew exactly _how_ it would happen, too. Sasuke would get really mad and pissed off, Naruto would defend his actions, Sasuke would leave, and Naruto would follow. It was like it was already predetermined, and Naruto was too tired to actually go through the motions. "Can we go for a walk?" he asked. He was answered by silence, two black eyes staring at him emotionlessly. "I know we have a lot to talk about, and I _know_ you're probably really pissed off at me, but if we go out for a walk, I promise I'll explain everything. I just…I don't want to do this here."

Sasuke didn't respond. Instead, he stood up and turned away from Naruto, walking towards the window. He stood in front of it for a moment looking up at the full moon before opening the window and leaving the bedroom. Naruto crossed to the window as well, just in time to see Sasuke jump onto the roof of a nearby building, and then to the next.

Naruto climbed out of the window and followed Sasuke down the familiar path to the old training grounds that they used to spar at. The same training grounds where they'd first kissed. The same training grounds where Sasuke proposed to him. He didn't need to follow Sasuke anymore; he knew exactly where he was going. After a few minutes, he finally arrived. Three posts stood, and Naruto could clearly remember when he was a kid and Kakashi tied him to the post. The very same post Sasuke was leaning against now.

"I'm sorry I left," Naruto said. Sasuke was still silent. "Actually, I'm not sorry I left. That means that I wish it never happened, and I don't wish that. If I never left, things would be very different. I'm happy with my life now. But I'm sorry I hurt you."

"Was it all just a joke?" Sasuke asked, addressing Naruto for the first time all night. And Naruto felt like he'd just been slapped across the cheek.

"W-What?" Naruto asked.

"The promises, the plans, the wedding, _the relationship_?" Sasuke clarified. "Was it all just some sick joke to you?"

"Of course it wasn't!" Naruto exclaimed. "I loved you."

"_Loved_?" Sasuke asked, closing his eyes. His face looked contorted in pain. Then, suddenly, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes, glaring at Naruto. "You _left_ me! You let me think you were _dead_! You didn't just _talk_ to me about any of this. I _grieved_ for you! If that's what you call love, then I'd hate to see how you treat the people you hate!"

The wind picked up, but the two remained silent, just looking at each other as the sun set behind them. Finally Naruto lowered his head and nodded.

"You're right," Naruto said. "I shouldn't have let you think I was dead. But even if I told you, you wouldn't have been able to move on. You would have stopped living for twenty years waiting for this to end. Isn't it better this way?"

"No," Sasuke spat. "It's not better. If you had told me, I would have run away with you. We could have gone into hiding together."

"That would have been too suspicious," Naruto said, shaking his head. "You saw what happened when he came here. He nearly killed Hinata and Sakura! He _did_ kill Shino. If we'd both died, he'd have known something was up. He'd have attacked the village again to lure us out of hiding."

"Why are you so scared of him?" Sasuke asked. "You're _Naruto Uzumaki_. You're a sage! The reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths! You could have killed him."

"Not before he killed someone I care about," Naruto said. "But that's not the point. The point is that I hurt you, and I'm sorry about it. Despite all that's happened, I hope that we can be friends."

"I don't _want_ to be friends with you!" Sasuke exclaimed angrily. "I don't want that at all! I could never pretend to just want friendship with you. You claim that you 'loved' me, but the same can't be said for me, because I'm _still_ in love with you. And the only thing worse than thinking you're dead is having to pretend that we're just friends and go back to how things were before. I don't want that at all!"

Naruto couldn't hear a thing over the sound of the blood rushing in his ears. His heart felt heavy, and his head was threatening to explode. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he re-opened them, Sasuke was standing less than a foot away from him.

"I still love you, Naruto," Sasuke whispered, cupping Naruto's cheek. Naruto looked into Sasuke's eyes and saw such raw emotion that he hadn't seen in a long, long time. "Please, tell me you still love me."

Naruto couldn't speak. He was starting to feel dizzy, and he was wondering how he could just escape this entire situation right now. He didn't want to hurt Sasuke, and he didn't want to string him along. He didn't want to tell Sasuke that he loved him, but at the same time, he couldn't deny that he still felt such strong feelings for the Uchiha. He didn't think they were that strong, but now that he was standing inches away from Sasuke, Naruto couldn't deny it.

He felt the minty breath on his lips just moments before he could feel the slight pressure of Sasuke's on them. Naruto was frozen by the familiar feeling of Sasuke's lips, and it seemed like Sasuke took that as permission to wrap his arms around the blond and press their lips together harder.

A war waged in Naruto's mind. He wanted to pull away. He should pull away. He was married to Gaara. He _loved_ Gaara. But he still couldn't find the strength to pull away. It was as if he and Sasuke were 17 again and just falling in love, not 39 and reconnecting after decades apart. And suddenly, thinking of that moment over twenty years ago when they'd shared their first (er, actually you could call it their second, but only if we were counting that little mistake back at the academy) kiss, Naruto felt like he was suddenly back in time. In fact, he wanted to open his mouth…

But when he felt Sasuke's tongue request access to his mouth, the sirens went off in Naruto's mind, and he jumped back as if a bucket of ice was just dropped on his head. He stumbled back and fell to the ground, but quickly picked himself back up.

"Sasuke," he whispered. "This can't happen. You're married to Sakura; I'm married to –" Naruto cut himself off, realizing just what he was about to reveal, and hoping Sasuke hadn't heard that last part. But one look at Sasuke's eyes showed that Sasuke had indeed heard that last part.

"You're married?" Sasuke asked in an obviously forcibly even voice.

Naruto nodded. "To Gaara," he confirmed.

"_Gaara_?" Sasuke asked incredulously. "Gaara of the Desert? The Fifth Kazekage? You married _Gaara_?!"

"It was after I relocated to Suna," Naruto said, sounding defensive. "We fell in love. I don't see what the big deal is. _You_ married Sakura."

"I thought you were dead!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"So? You love her now, don't you?" Naruto accused.

"Not the same way I love you," Sasuke said, surprising Naruto. "I could never love anyone the way I love you." Silence followed Sasuke's declaration until Naruto walked forward and embraced Sasuke.

"I'm so sorry things ended up like this," Naruto said. "I don't regret falling in love with Gaara, but I never would have done what I did if I knew you'd be hurt like this. I guess I kind of just figured that you'd move on after a while and fall in love with someone else."

"A love like ours comes along once in a lifetime," Sasuke said quietly, refusing to hug Naruto back. "I could never truly fall in love with anyone else. I don't think you can, either." The entire field went quiet as the final rays of sunlight fell below the horizon, draping the entire world in darkness.

"Please, Sasuke," Naruto said. "I know this sounds selfish, but if you really love me like you say you do, then just try to be my friend. I just want us to be best friends again like we used to be. I want to get to know you, hear about your family. Please, just…let's _try_ to be friends." He pulled back to look up at Sasuke as rain began to fall. It started as a small drizzle, but in second became a downpour.

"Let me walk you home," Sasuke said emotionlessly. "I'll tell you about my family." Naruto smiled widely, and Sasuke's heart jumped a beat. If he could see that smile more often, then he would pretend like he wasn't dying to kiss him again and again and never stop.

By the time they made it back to town, the rain was almost torrential, so nobody was out. That suited them just fine – they didn't have to take a huge detour to avoid anyone this way.

"So you have kids now, huh?" Naruto as they passed the closed Bar-be-que place.

"Yeah," Sasuke confirmed. "There's Ako, who's 17 and was promoted to jonin a couple of weeks ago. Then there's Saki, who is going to be taking the genin exam in a couple of days, and finally Fushiki, who's going to be starting the academy later this year."

"Wow," Naruto said, absorbing this. "That's great. I know how much you wanted to revive your clan."

"Yeah, they're great kids," Sasuke said. "Saki's been obsessed with trying to awaken her Sharingan lately. I keep telling her that every ninja awakens it at a different time, but she refuses to listen. Ako's been training very hard with Kakashi. He sort of took Ako under his wing a while ago. Now they tend to go on missions together often. As for Fushiki, he's still a mama's boy."

"That's sweet," Naruto said with a smile as the Hokage mansion fell into their field of vision. "I'm sure Sakura's a great mother."

"She is," Sasuke agreed. He paused, and they continued to walk, the rain continuing to fall harder and harder. "So what about you? Do you and…Gaara...have a family?" Naruto couldn't help but feel like the question was forced.

"No," he said sadly. "I mean, there's Kankuro and Temari and her daughter, but we never adopted or anything, if that's your question."

"That's a shame," Sasuke said as they finally approached the large building. "I always thought you'd make a great father."

"Thanks," Naruto said, climbing up the stairs with Sasuke to the door to the building. "It really is nice being back. I hope things won't be…awkward between us."

Sasuke didn't answer; instead, he turned to leave, walking down the couple of steps back onto the street before turning his head back towards Naruto. "Are you happy? With him, I mean."

He didn't want to say it. He _really_ didn't want to say it. He felt bad enough shutting Sasuke down back at the training grounds. He _really_ didn't want to tell Sasuke the truth – that yes, he and Gaara were very happy together. He looked away from Sasuke, hoping he could come up with a suitable answer, but it seemed like body language gave the truth away. Sasuke nodded to himself and continued to walk away. A couple of seconds later, Naruto decided it was time to enter his temporary home.

Sakura Uchiha wasn't always the most perceptive when it came to Sasuke; oftentimes, it was her feelings for him that clouded common sense, and the usually sharp-as-a-tack kunoichi ended up seeming like one tool short of a kit, at least wherever Sasuke was concerned. Nevertheless, she knew to be worried for Sasuke.

Not really knowing much more than the fact that Naruto was back and he had a happy life back in Suna, she couldn't really tell what this meant. Was Naruto still single? If he wasn't, did he want Sasuke back? Would Sasuke leave her for him?

She'd love to say that it wasn't really worrying. She'd be lying. She knew that if Naruto really wanted to get back together with Sasuke, Sasuke would dump her in a moment. It was just the truth. She knew that a part of Sasuke – a pretty big part of him – had never gotten over Naruto's "death", and she knew that her husband was still in love with Naruto.

But further than the romantic implications of Naruto's return laid other complications. How would this affect their family? None of their kids knew about their father's sexuality or his previous relationship with Naruto. If Sasuke and Naruto decided they wanted to be together, how would that affect their children? If Naruto decided he _didn't_ want to get back together with Sasuke for some reason, how would that affect her husband? And then, how would that effect impact their children.

The worst part was the feeling Sakura had that told her that if Naruto and Sasuke decided they wanted to reunite, a part of her – she didn't know how big that part was – would want to cling to Sasuke. That was probably the worst thought to go through her mind. She'd become such great friends with both Sasuke and Naruto after the war was over. She helped Sasuke through Naruto's "death", and agreed when he asked her to help him revive his clan (not that it was really an imposition).

Even though they married without any romantic implications, Sakura couldn't help but fall further in love with her husband. They never really got very romantic, but he was a very shy person when it came to feelings. She knew that he was very comfortable with being with her, and that's something that not many people would be able to have provided him. And despite the fact that they never got very romantic, he treated her well.

When the rain began to pound on the ceiling, she sighed and shook her head. No, there was always time to worry about romantic and familial implications of Naruto's return. Romantically, she knew that they'd be able to settle things like adults. Well, at least she thought she could. Then again, Naruto and Sasuke weren't always known for being the most sane and rational people when it came to each other.

But all that could and would wait. Because right now, she had her friend back. Although Ino would probably always hold the title of her best friend, Naruto had been very high up there for a while. After the war, it had been hard to adjust to the new life they all had, but it wasn't terrible. And when Sasuke came back, it changed the dynamic even further. She didn't know when, but at some point, Naruto had gotten over his feelings for her, and they were able to truly become great friends. Those unspoken, one-sided feelings were no longer an obstacle.

And now, he was back. She almost hit herself on the head as that thought returned. How could she have just _left_? Naruto was back! She should have taken him to Ichiraku and stayed out all night with him catching up on the last twenty years! She sat up from her lounging position on the sofa, ready to leave and find Naruto, before realizing that going out in the rain wasn't smart.

Speaking of rain, where was Sasuke? She had no doubt that he had probably gone off somewhere to deal with whatever resurgent feelings arose when he saw Naruto, but it was getting late, and the weather was really getting disgusting. It was almost unfathomable how hard the rain was falling.

As that thought entered her mind, the door opened to reveal a drenched Sasuke standing outside. He slowly walked inside as Sakura stood up, moving to close the door behind him.

"Go upstairs and change before you get a cold," she scolded softly. He wordlessly went upstairs to presumably do just that, but Sakura followed. They passed the doors to Saki and Ako's bedroom before ending up at the master bedroom. Sasuke undressed and redress in nightwear robotically, so much that it scared Sakura. He seemed to be lifeless. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said quietly, sitting down on their bed. "I guess it really hasn't sunk in yet."

Sakura nodded. "Where did you go?"

"I waited for him so we could talk alone," Sasuke admitted.

"…And?" Sakura urged.

Sasuke didn't respond. Instead, he moved across the bed so that he was laying down. "It's been a long day, Sakura," he said. "Let's just go to sleep."

Despite the fact that she wanted to get more details about the encounter that Naruto and Sasuke had, she knew that Sasuke wasn't the type to respond much to prying. She sighed and began to get changed for bed, deciding that she'd find Naruto tomorrow and they could have a nice, long talk.

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	4. 3: Special Eyes

**This chapter was betaed by** SingingSparklyKuma.

Chapter 03: Special Eyes

The next day, all Naruto had wanted to do was go to Ichiraku and get some freaking ramen. Was that really too much to ask? He'd been gone for twenty years, and now that he was back, he couldn't even leave the freaking Hokage mansion without Tsunade summoning him to tell him some other thing having to do with running the village. Yeah, he knew he had to learn all this soon, but he _really_ wanted some ramen.

"…vote of confidence from the jonin council, then the position becomes official," Tsunade continued as Naruto shook himself from his thoughts. He guessed if he was going to have to sit here, he might as well pay attention and not waste the time.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" Naruto asked sheepishly. Tsunade simultaneously sighed and rolled her eyes, but obliged anyway.

"I was _saying_," she said pointedly, "that after I discuss with the elders the position of Hokage, we will go before the Fire Council that includes the daimyo of the Land of Fire. After they give their approval, which I'm sure will be the case, you will become the official candidate for the Sixth Hokage. You will take over control of the village for a trial period of two months before the jonin council takes a vote of confidence on how you have run the village. If they vote yes, then you officially become the Sixth Hokage. If they don't –"

Tsunade was interrupted mid sentence by the door to the office opening quite loudly. Naruto's eyes shifted to the man who was standing there, cloaked in black with his hood up, obscuring most of his face. He glanced at Tsunade to see that she grew tense at the man's entrance.

"Naruto Uzumaki," the man said, his voice low and cold. "To think that the rumors are true; you are alive." The man paused, waiting to see if Naruto or Tsunade would respond. "When one of my subordinates told me that they heard you were alive and in the village, I had many doubts, but it seemed that I owe him an apology."

"What do you want, Hyo?" Tsunade asked tersely.

"As I said, I came to find out if the rumors about his return are true," the man, Hyo, said. "I hope that Naruto has a good excuse for deserting the village for a large number of years."

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, but Tsunade beat him to it. "Naruto Uzumaki has been on a top-secret mission for the Leaf village," Tsunade said. "He most certainly did _not_ desert the village."

"I'm intrigued to discover what sort of mission you would send one of the village's strongest shinobi on for twenty years," Hyo said with a pointed look at Tsunade. "I'm sure there would have been a better candidate for whatever mission this was." The mysterious man paused. "And to think, I was under the impression that you were incapable of deceit, Lady Tsunade."

"A true ninja is capable of anything," Tsunade said coldly, a harsh glare gracing her face. "But don't expect to hear about the mission from me. You might have taken over the Foundation, but without Danzo's influence over the elders, you have no entitlement to top-secret information anymore. Now get out of my office before I decide to not-so-politely _escort_ you out."

"Very well," Hyo said with a slight bow of the head. "But I assure you, Tsunade, I will learn the extent of this mission at some point. Word always gets around to me." With that, the thoroughly unpleasant visitor turned around and left the office, the door swinging shut behind him. Tsunade's reaction was instantaneous, pounding her desk and making a fist-shaped hole.

"Who was that?" Naruto asked.

" You remember the Foundation, the section of the ANBU that reported to Danzo before he died, right?" Tsunade asked. Naruto nodded his head in confirmation. "That was one of Danzo's subordinates, Hyo, who picked up the helm of the Foundation shortly after you left the village and continued to run it much like Danzo had. Danzo always had too much influence because he was teammates with the old village elders; but with new elders that Hyo has no connection to, he finds it necessary to try and interrogate me for information that would have normally fallen in Danzo's lap." Tsunade scowled to herself before looking back up at Naruto.

"Don't underestimate them, Naruto," she warned. "When I make the announcement that I plan on stepping down and letting you become my replacement, there will be many opponents. The elders will surely have no problem, nor will the jonin. Even the daimyo can be convinced. But there will still be people in the village – strong, influential shinobi – who don't trust you and think that there should have been a different Sixth Hokage. Hyo is one of them. The last thing you need is a faction of the Hidden Leaf working to undermine your appointment as Hokage."

"Okay, okay, I get it," Naruto said, raising his hands in surrender. "I'll watch out for them, I promise."

"One more thing," Tsunade said. "When people ask you what you've been up to, it would be easiest to tell them that you were on a mission. Technically, your mission was to lay low for awhile, but you don't have to get into specifics."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"Hyo and the Foundation have picked up Danzo's hobby of trying to destabilize my leadership," Tsunade said. "The last thing they need to know is that we were so unable to handle a madman that we sent you away from the village."

"That's not how it was at all!" Naruto exclaimed loudly.

"_I_ know that, and _you_ know that," Tsunade said. "But the truth of the matter is that Hyo would be able to spin the story that way. I need you to promise me you won't discuss with anyone other than those we've let in on the secret – Sasuke, Sakura, Jiraya, Iruka and Kakashi – about the mission."

"I promise," Naruto assured her. "Is there more you have to discuss with me, or can I go out and get some lunch and see some people?"

"There is one more matter I'd like to discuss with you, Naruto," Tsunade said, sitting back. "As you know, the results of the graduation exam at the academy have come out, and we have designed teams with three genin on each team with a jonin sensei, you being one of the sensei. Instead of doing what we usually do and pairing members of different caliber together to help improve some of the lesser-performing students, we specially arranged your team based on who you are and what skills you offer."

"Okay," Naruto said. "So when do I find out who I have?"

"Here is the list," Tsunade said, passing the clipboard. "This year we have four genin teams: Team 5, which will be lead by Tara Inuzuka, Team 6, which will be lead by Moegi Mazuki, Team 9, which will be lead by Ami Tsura, and Team 4, your team."

Naruto examined the clipboard, recognizing not a single name until his eyes rested on his own team. He looked up again with an eyebrow. "Saki Uchiha and Shikamira Nara?" Nauto asked, a questioning eyebrow raised. "You specially placed them on my team for any particular reason?"

"Well, they both come from prestigious families and have already begun to learn family jutsu," Tsunade said. "From what I hear, Saki is pretty talented in Fire Release, and Shikamira already knows how to use the Shadow Possession Jutsu. I placed them with you because I know you've worked with both Sasuke and Shikamaru in the past, and you have experience with these techniques; more than the others have, at least.

"But it's not Saki and Shikamira that we must talk about right now," Tsunade said, prompting Naruto to look at the third name in his team: _Mino Kano_. The name didn't ring a bell at all; what was so important that Tsunade decided to focus their discussion solely on him? "Mino Kano is…gifted."

"Is that your way of telling me that he's one of those bookworm-y kids that'll make me feel stupid half the time?" Naruto asked.

"Quite the opposite, actually," Tsunade said with a smirk. "His knuckleheadedness almost rivals yours."

"I'd be offended if I wasn't so intrigued," Naruto commented.

"Mino came to Konoha with his mother about ten years ago as refugees from the Fourth Shinobi World War," Tsunade explained. "Years had passed since the war was over, but we still accepted them after their new village had burned down. But there's something unique about that kid. We don't know how or why, but when he arrived here, he had a set of Rinnegan eyes, and his mother claims that he's had them since birth."

Naruto was silent as the statement sank in. There was only one way to obtain the Rinnegan; only a select number of people ever held it. The only person who can naturally unlock it is an Uchiha Clan member who has awakened their Sharingan. After they experience severe guilt and trauma, they can awaken their Mangekyo Sharingan, which has added powers at the cost of descending into blindness. If two close members of the family obtain the Mangekyo Sharingan, one can have the other's eyes implanted in his own to get the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, which stops the descent into blindness. Only after one has achieved the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan can one awaken the Rinnegan.

In history, only a few ninjas had the Rinnegan. The first person to awaken it was Madara Uchiha. Right around his death, the eyes were taken by Tobi and implanted into the baby Nagato. After Nagato's death, Tobi reclaimed the Rinnegan and implanted one in his eyes. The only other person to have awakened the Rinnegan was Sasuke Uchiha. These four: Sasuke, Madara, Tobi and Nagato – were the only ones to ever have a Rinnegan, and they were only able to be obtained by the evolution of the Sharingan or by transplant. In fact, knowing what they knew about the Rinnegan, Naruto and Tsunade both knew that it was impossible to be born with a Rinnegan.

"We know that the Rinnegan had to be implanted at birth, but if what you told me about Harame Mogiko," Tsunade said. "The only known sets of Rinnegan eyes are the one that Sasuke has and the ones that belonged to Madara Uchiha."

"I promise you that when I fought Harame, he was using the Rinnegan," Naruto said. "There's no way I could be mistaken about that."

"Then there are two possibilities," Tsunade said. "One is that somehow, Harame lost his eyes, and they ended up implanted in Mino for some reason. I don't think that's the case at all."

"Why not?" Naruto asked.

"Because Maya, Mino's mother, was certain that his Rinnegan was a hereditary dojutsu that was passed on from his father," Tsunade said. "The father was a one-night stand, but Maya remembers that Mino's father had the same Rinnegan eyes."

"Which means that there are more sets of the Rinnegan out there somewhere besides Madara's and Sasuke's," Naruto surmised. "That's a dangerous thought."

"I have people keeping eyes and ears open for information about this, but I haven't had much luck," Tsunade said. "I've kept this very secret, because I don't want this to get out. Do you understand me?" Naruto nodded. "I think that you should go see Maya and find out more about Mino for yourself," she continued. "I'm sure you have more than a few questions, and I'm also sure you'd like to know something about him before you meet him in two days as his sensei."

Naruto nodded. "Maya Kano works at the Bar-Be-Que restaurant in the village," Tsunade said. "Maybe you should wait to have Ichiraku for tonight and get some roasted pork instead."

Naruto was slightly put off that he had to put off Ichiraku's once again, but he could deal with it. After all, he did want to meet this Maya and learn more about Mino. Tsunade's decision to place Mino on his team made sense: someone had to look out for him, and he had the most experience dealing with the Rinnegan. He was the first person to defeat it, he went up against it multiple times between Nagato and Tobi, and he has fought alongside it with Sasuke.

He didn't expect this, however. To think that there was likely more than one person out there with the awesome power of the Rinnegan. The power that Nagato used to conquer the Hidden Rain and decimate the Hidden Leaf; The power that Tobi used to control 6 Tailed Beasts and wage war against the entire world; The power that Madara used to stand up to the five kage and bring himself back from the dead, the most powerful ninja in the world. That power was out there, and that thought alone was frightening.

The second he entered the BBQ place, however, he forgot about Maya and Mino and the Rinnegan, lost in a flashback of before he left the village. Sitting in a booth in the opposite corner of the restaurant were three frequent guests of the establishment: Choji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka, and Shikamaru Nara.

Instantly, Naruto's jokester side took over, and he grinned at the thought that ran through his mind. Even if there were rumors starting to go around already, he was sure he could surprise the three, and he figured out how to do it in the most entertaining way possible.

He began to walk towards the table quietly but normally, as if he wasn't about to shock the shit out of his three friends. Just imagining the look on Shikamaru's face could only be slightly less entertaining than imagining the look on Ino's face when they saw him alive. Shikamaru and Ino were sitting on one side of the booth facing Naruto's direction, which meant that Choji was on the other side, his back towards Naruto. Even facing his direction, though, neither Ino nor Shikamaru noticed him until he was a couple of feet away. At which time, they promptly stopped speaking.

Before Choji could figure out why Shikamaru and Ino had just cut off, Naruto had sat down in the open space next to Choji, wrapping his right arm around Choji's shoulders. Choji stopped chewing abruptly as the three looked at Naruto in shock, and Naruto gave them a shit-eating grin. "Hey, Choji, I hope you saved some food for me. I'm starving!"

He would have laughed at their reaction if it wasn't for the fact that Choji picked that very moment to start choking on his food, attracting the attention of most of the restaurant. Feeling guilty that he accidentally made Choji choke, Naruto got up to pull Choji up and perform the Heimlich maneuver, but Choji scrambled away from him, probably shocked at seeing Naruto at all.

Instead, it was a pretty waitress who came over and wrapped her arms around Choji's stomach from behind, doing the Heimlich to save Choji's life. Instantly, the choked-upon beef flew out of Choji's mouth and – ironically – landed on Naruto's cheek before rebounding to the ground.

"Dude! Gross!" Naruto said, wiping his cheek with his sleeve. The waitress asked Choji if he was alright, but he only managed to nod. Maybe Naruto shouldn't go around shocking the living fuck out of all his friends. Maybe he should be a little more tactful.

"I'm fine, thanks…" Choji paused to look at the waitress' name tag. "Maya."

"It was no problem," she said. "Just don't eat too fast, alright?" After receiving a nod, the waitress – who Naruto now assumed to be the very Maya Kano that he came here to see in the first place – left them.

By the time either of the three actually reacted to Naruto, the rest of the patrons had resumed their own meals. To Shikamaru's credit, he recovered fastest. "What's going on?" he asked, looking at Naruto.

"It's a really long story," Naruto said, sitting back down at the booth. "But for what it's worth, I'm sorry for almost killing Choji."

"I-It's okay," Choji said, his breathing returning to a more even pace as he tentatively sat down next to Naruto, keeping a small distance. "So is this the Edo Tensei jutsu, or did Sasuke finally crack and use the Rinne Tensei to bring him back?"

"It has to be the Rinne Tensei," Ino surmised, seeming to come out of her state of shock. "His eyes look pretty normal; all Edo Tensei revivals have black eyes."

"I'm not a revival," Naruto scoffed. "I'm the real deal. Believe it! It would take more than Harame Mogiko to put me six feet under."

"Are you going to actually explain anything, or are we going to pretend for another few minutes that you being here is normal?" Shikamaru asked impatiently.

"I told you it's a long story, Shikamaru," Naruto said with a shrug. "Without going into details, I was assigned a mission that ended up taking longer than expected. Harame's attack on the Leaf was timed with right before I was supposed to leave, and Tsunade decided that my mission would be easier to complete if people thought I was dead."

"Oh my god, is this really happening?" Ino asked. "Does Sasuke know? Does Sakura know?"

Naruto nodded. "They were the first people I decided to break the news to. To say they were unprepared for this is…"

"An understatement," Shikamaru supplied. "I can't imagine that went well at all."

"It went better than you'd expect, actually," Naruto said quite matter-of-factly. "Sakura was excited to see me. Sasuke was torn between happy and incredibly pissed off. And we know how he gets when he's pissed off."

No one decided to comment on that statement. Regardless, it wasn't long before Naruto had Shikamaru and Choji talking as if Naruto had never left. He learned that Ino and Shikamaru were married, which meant that Ino was Shikamira's mother. They were happy to find that their daughter was going to be on Naruto's team. Choji, while he hadn't yet settled down with anyone, had also changed quite a bit. He was much slimmer than he used to be, attributing his weight loss to many missions in which he ended up using a ton of chakra.

Shikamaru and Ino also told Naruto that their fathers had become the Konoha elders after the passing of Homura and Koharu, the previous elders. Naruto figured that if Inoichi and Shikaku were the village elders, it wouldn't be too hard to get their approval to be Hokage. Of course, Naruto didn't talk about that. Tsunade wanted Naruto to become more acclimated to life back in Konoha before dropping the bomb on the village that she was naming Naruto as her successor.

He also found out about some of his other friends. Hinata and Kiba ended up together with a couple of kids, Kusa and Amaru Inuzuka, who were 15 and 16 respectively. They inherited the same nose as their father with the same eyes as their mother. Neji and Tenten have been together since before Naruto left the village, and they now have two kids: Sara, 19, and Hizabi, 14.

Shikamaru and Ino talked a lot about their daughter, Shikamira, who seemed to have begun learning the Nara family jutsu already. It turns out that unlike her mother, she was quite tomboyish, and unlike her father, she was easily excited.

After a couple more rounds of BBQ, all the patrons at the table were sufficiently full, and they decided to leave. Or at least Ino, Shikamaru and Choji did. Naruto decided he'd stay back and wait for Maya to come to the table to collect the money and the check, and then he'd have a little talk with her.

It didn't take too long. Just a couple of minutes after Ino, Shikamaru and Choji left, Maya arrived at the table to collect the check and clear off the table for the next patrons, but was surprised to see Naruto still there.

"Oh, is there anything else you'd like?" Maya asked sweetly as she collected the plates that Shikamaru, Ino and Choji had used.

"I'd like it very much if you'd sit and talk with me for a couple of minutes," Naruto offered, spreading his arm to indicate the free space across from him.

"That's very sweet, but I'm working right now," Maya said with what seemed to be a more forced smile than she was wearing before.

"Then maybe later," Naruto said smiling. "I know this great ramen stand that has the best miso pork in the village."

"Sorry, but I'm not interested," Maya said, her smile fading as she started to become more irritated. Suddenly, Naruto realized what he sounded like, and decided to clear the air.

"No!" he exclaimed. "Not like that; not on a date or anything! I'm married."

"It doesn't stop _some_ people," she muttered, probably more to herself than to Naruto.

"I'm going to be Mino's jonin sensei," Naruto cleared up. "You're Maya Kano, right? I just want to talk about your son."

"Oh," she said, her cheeks reddening slightly. "I'm sorry, I thought you were just another pervert hitting on me. I'm working here until about 6:00-ish, so stop by then and we can talk, alright?"

Naruto nodded and apologized for the confusion before standing up and leaving the restaurant. It worked better this way. He had a few more people he had to see – Kiba, Hinata, Neji, Tenten, Lee, Konohamaru – and he wanted to see them before word really started to spread across the village.

Despite the fact that he had had his fill at BBQ, he still headed in the direction of Ichiraku. One could never get too full for ramen! Besides, he still hadn't had any ramen since he got back to the village. Sure, Suna had its fair share of ramen, but nothing could compare to some good ol' Ichiraku.

"Hey there," Naruto said as he swung his head underneath the sign that hung, blocking the view of the shop from the outside. He sat down nonchalantly, forgetting for a moment that very few people knew he was even alive.

"Hello, sir, what would you like?" Ayame, the girl who had always helped her father run the stand, said with a cheerful smile.

"I'll have my usual," Naruto said with a smile. It took him a moment to realize that Ayame was perplexed by that set of directions. Immediately, he realized what it was that was confusing her, and he smirked. "Come on, Aya. I know it's been a while, but you should remember my gorgeous face."

"Stop messing with her, Naruto," piped up Iruka, who Naruto had not noticed was eating on the other side of the ramen bar. He scratched the side of his head sheepishly with a grin on his face as Ayame's face contorted from confusion to shock to happiness to even more shock.

"What's going on?" she asked, directing her question to Iruka. Naruto wondered why nobody ever asked _him_ why he wasn't dead, they always first looked to everyone else.

"I was on a pretty long undercover mission," Naruto answered before Iruka had a chance. Ayame's attention shifted to him. "I don't know why they wanted everyone to think I was dead, but it helped me with my assignment."

"I…I just…I can't even believe this," Ayame said, a smile starting to spread across her face. "This is so great!" she exclaimed, flinging herself over the counter to hug Naruto. "You have no idea how sad my father and I were when we heard…you were always our best customer." She pulled back quickly, a serious expression on her face. "You still like ramen, don't you?"

"Of course!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Fifteen bowls on the house for you and Iruka each!" Ayame exclaimed, holding a soup ladle above her head.

"F-Fifteen," Iruka asked, choking on his miso. "I'm fine with just one more."

"Then _I'll_ have your other fourteen, too!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. "I have a lot of ramen eating to catch up on!"

As Ayame turned to start cooking the first bowl of ramen, Naruto got up and moved a couple seats over until he was seated next to Iruka. Iruka set aside his first bowl with a satisfied expression on his face.

"So how are things going with you now, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked as the first of what would soon be many bowls of ramen was placed in front of him.

"Pretty well, if I do say so myself," Iruka said with a smile. "I was promoted to jonin about seventeen years ago, I've already gotten and trained a genin team who are now all chunin, and Kakashi and I –"

"Did you tell him?" Naruto interrupted excitedly, a grin spreading at the reaction on Iruka's face. "You did! It's about fucking time. I was telling you for, like, ever that you should tell him."

"Well, that's old news," Iruka said with a shrug. "We've been dating for a few years now."

"You can tell me I was right any time now," Naruto said smugly as he finished draining the first bowl. A second was promptly placed in front of him.

"Fine, Naruto," Iruka said with a sigh. "You were right." Naruto grinned at Iruka. "It doesn't happen often," the brunet said with a smirk, causing Naruto to scowl.

"So what was it like training a genin team?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I know you couldn't have someone as good looking or as powerful as I, but I'd like to hear who they got you to train."

"Someone hasn't gotten any less cocky since they were a kid," Iruka muttered under his breath with a smile. "They were actually _very_ strong ninja, I'll have you know."

"Sure, but not 'Reincarnation-of-Sage-of-Six-Paths-Perfect-Nine-Tails-Jinchuriki-Toad-Sage-Son-of-the-Yellow-Flash' strong, I'm sure," Naruto said with a smirk. "Heck, I'm sure they weren't even 'Rinnegan-Sharingan-Mangekyo-Weilding' strong either, were they?"

"Your entire graduating class was a bunch of freakishly strong weirdos," Iruka muttered under his breath. "My team was still very strong."

"With a sensei like you, how couldn't they be?" Naruto asked after he finished polishing off his third bowl. He looked up to see a mountain of bowls waiting for consumption, and suddenly he remembered all the food he ate at BBQ. _'No matter,'_ he thought to himself. _'I will eat every last noodle.'_

A couple hours later, Naruto was on his way back towards the BBQ restaurant so that he could talk to Maya and find out more about this kid with the Rinnegan. The entire idea of it was odd. The only two pair of Rinnegan that Naruto knew of belonged to Sasuke and Madara originally. Of course, Madara's eyes passed down to Nagato and then to Tobi, but that didn't change the fact that only two pairs of eyes existed. Madara's eyes were destroyed; Sasuke still had his eyes. So how could this Mino Kano have the Rinnegan?

He entered the restaurant and caught sight of Maya as she was walking into the kitchen. He stood near the door waiting for a few seconds until she emerged, having lost her waitress-apron. She immediately saw him and waved him over to a booth in the middle of the restaurant. He obediently followed, sitting down in front of her.

"I already gave my order to the kitchen, but I didn't know what you wanted," Maya said, sounding slightly out-of-breath.

"I'm good," Naruto said. "I had a very large lunch."

She nodded. "So, I take it this is about his eyes?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow. She was pretty forward. He nodded. "When we came here as refugees, the Hokage questioned us about it, and I have no more information to give to you."

"Can you tell me everything you told her?" Naruto asked. "Being that I will be his sensei in a couple of days, I figure I should get the whole story from you."

She nodded in understanding before taking a sip of the tea she had in front of her. "His father had those same eyes," she began. "This was back when we lived on the border of the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire. My family was originally from the Land of Hot Water, but we were displaced in the Fourth Shinobi World War."

"Who is his father?" Naruto asked.

"He was just a one-night stand," she said quickly.

"No name?" Naruto pressed. She gave him a sour look.

"I don't see what names have to do with anything," she said. He was about to open his mouth to respond, but she continued. "I couldn't tell you if I wanted to, anyway. I never got his name." Naruto nodded and urged her to continue.

"Our village was attacked by bandits, and our house was burned," Maya said. "This was back when Mino was about one-and-a-half years old. Having nowhere else to go, we came here, knowing that the Leaf was still accepting refugees from the war."

"Mino has had these eyes all his life?" Naruto questioned.

"Since birth," Maya confirmed. "The Hokage seems to think that he was taken shortly after birth and implanted with those eyes, but that's not true."

"You're sure?" Naruto asked. "You saw his eyes the second he was delivered?"

"I saw him when I woke up," she amended. "I passed out during childbirth. But there are just some things that mothers know." Naruto was quiet. Obviously Maya was sure of herself that Mino had the Rinnegan since birth, but Naruto knew it's not possible. He was with Tsunade on this – Mino had to have been implanted with them.

"I don't even get what the big deal is," Maya continued. "I mean, sure they're not 'normal' eyes," she said, using air quotes, "but I'm sure there are stranger things in this village for you all to worry about."

"They didn't tell you anything about the eyes?" Naruto asked, confused as to why Tsunade wouldn't inform her. Maya shook her head.

"No, but they made sure that we were put up in a nice apartment," she said bitterly. "I'm not complaining, but I sometimes feel like they keep tabs on us."

Naruto was quiet, contemplating whether or not he should tell Maya about the Rinnegan. On one hand, Tsunade and the rest of the higher-ups probably had a reason that they didn't want to let Maya know about it. On the other hand, it did directly concern Maya and Mino, so they deserved to know. After a brief battle about whether or not to tell Maya, he decided that he should tell her.

"Those eyes aren't just abnormal," Naruto said quietly. "Those eyes are incredibly powerful, and there's a reason that Mino was most likely _not_ born with them."

"Oh, am I finally going to find out why people are so interested in my son's eyes?" Maya asked bitterly.

"His eyes are a special evolution of the Sharingan eye called the Rinnegan," Naruto explained. "Only two sets of eyes, to my knowledge, have ever awakened them: the co-founder of the Hidden Leaf, Madara Uchiha, and Sasuke Uchiha, the patriarch of the Uchiha clan. The Sharingan is a kekkei genkai specific to the Uchiha Clan, which is only awakened by the most skilled of their members. The evolution from Sharingan to Rinnegan is a long path that would be impossible to be gone through in the womb or just after birth."

"What kind of path?" Maya asked, seeming to be interested.

"Well, the first evolution of the Sharingan is called the Mangekyo Sharingan, which can only be attained when the user kills the person closest to them," Naruto explained. The look on Maya's face was almost comical at the moment. "Only a handful of people have attained the Mangekyo Sharingan to my knowledge. The Mangekyo Sharingan contains a variety of extremely powerful techniques that are extremely taxing on the eye. Use of the Mangekyo Sharingan leads to blindness."

"And then," Maya urged Naruto to continue.

"And then comes the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan," Naruto explained. "If two close relatives – usually brothers – have obtained the Mangekyo Sharingan, the eyes of one can be infused in the other to get the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. In addition to more powerful techniques, the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan prevents the blindness that the first Mangekyo Sharingan produces.

"The Rinnegan is the final evolution in the Sharingan line," Naruto continued. "It is the eye of the first shinobi, the Sage of Six Paths, who was the ancestor of all shinobi, specifically of the Senju and Uchiha clans that founded the village. The Rinnegan has different powers altogether from the other eyes, and is the most powerful bloodline limit I've ever come across."

"So Mino has somehow awakened this eye?" Maya asked in awe.

"Can he activate it and de-activate it at will?" Naruto asked. Maya shook her head no. "Then those eyes have almost certainly been implanted into him. You said that the father also had these eyes?"

"Yeah," Maya said, starting to look overwhelmed by the information being received. Naruto frowned. That meant that in addition to Sasuke and Harame's pair of Rinnegan, there were two more pairs out there. A waiter came over before Naruto could respond and placed a plate of food in front of her.

"What does this mean for my boy?" Maya asked.

"He's going to be an extremely skilled ninja," Naruto answered. "I was specifically made his sensei because I have very extensive experience with the Rinnegan. I have fought against it and alongside it, and I am aware of many of its secrets."

"Then I'm glad that you are his sensei," Maya said. Naruto nodded in agreement, grateful that Mino's training would not be in the hands of someone without any knowledge or experience of the Rinnegan. But still, plaguing him in the back of his mind, was one question: how did Mino get his Rinnegan?

There was little discussion between Naruto and Maya after his explanation of the Rinnegan to her. Overall, the day had been exhausting. He'd seen way too many people and watched far too many double-takes. He'd be glad when no one was surprised to see him anymore.

He was tired as he walked up towards the Hokage mansion, momentarily stopping when he saw a pink-haired woman standing by the door, seemingly waiting for him.

"Sakura," he said, trying to muster up as much peppiness in his voice as possible. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Someone's been working on his vocabulary the last twenty years," Sakura commented with an amused smirk. "Besides, can't a girl show up to see her best friend who she hasn't seen in decades?"

"It's Gaara," Naruto explained, ignoring her last statement. "He has such a formal way of speaking and constantly corrects my grammar. It's pretty annoying sometimes." He paused for a moment, entering the house area of the Hokage mansion with Sakura following behind. "So it seems like we have a lot to catch up on." Upon entering his room, he jumped onto his bed and sighed in contentment, closing his eyes.

"I know!" Sakura exclaimed, sitting down beside his lying form. "You're _married_! To _Gaara_!"

"I'm not the only one who got a husband," Naurto said, peeking through one eye to see Sakura's face. Her cheeks colored a little bit, and she faced away from him.

"About that…" she began.

"Oh no, it's totally fine," Naruto said, sitting up after realizing what he implied. "I'm happy for you guys. You have a family and everything. I know how much both of you wanted a family."

"I'd understand if you're upset," Sakura said. "In fact, I sort of expect it. We only got together about a year or so after you left."

"A lot can happen in a year," Naruto said, laying back down. "I mean, look at what's happened in the last couple of days. I'm not mad."

"Are you sure?" Sakura asked. "I mean, you two _were_ about to be married."

"I don't think I'll ever completely fall out of love with Sasuke," Naruto admitted, "but I do have a husband now, and I love Gaara a lot. He's the best thing that happened to me."

"Same with Sasuke," Sakura said, content that Naruto wasn't upset with her for marrying Sasuke. "I mean, I was in love with him for, like, ever. And even though we got together a while ago, I don't think he really had feelings for me until much more recently." Naruto chose not to respond, remembering Sasuke's words from last night.

_"You love her now, don't you?" Naruto accused Sasuke._

_"Not the same way I love you," Sasuke said, surprising Naruto. "I could never love anyone the way I love you."_

"I really do hope you guys are happy," Naruto mumbled. "Sakura, as much as I'd love to talk to you some more, I am fucking _exhausted_ right now."

"Of course," Sakura said, standing up and smoothing out her skirt. "Again, welcome home. It's great to have you back."

"It's great to be back," Naruto mumbled as he started to fall asleep. He was aware of the light turning off and the door clicking shut before sleep took him.

**Author's Note: As I'm sure that people who read the original story are well aware from this chapter, the name Temira Nara has been switched to Shikamira Nara. As I wrote the original story, I found the name Temira to be too close to the name Temari, and both are characters that are connected to Shikamaru throughout the story. When I began to rewrite, I decided to take the opportunity to change her name.**

**Remember to Review and check out my blog at **fanfics-sm . blogspot . com **for updates, chapter previews, and information about past, present, and future projects.**


	5. 4: Seeing Through Deception

**Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews. Here's the next chapter.**

**This chapter was betaed by **SingingSparklyKuma**.**

Chapter 04: Seeing Through Deception

Three students were left in the academy classroom at this point. All the other graduates had gone off with their jonin senseis to start training as genin, leaving just Saki Uchiha, Mino Kano, and Shikamira Nara alone in the classroom to wait. It had already been a couple minutes since the last team had left, and the new genin were starting to get annoyed.

"When will he be here?" Saki complained, running her fingers through her long, pink hair. "I didn't realize that our sensei was going to be a total jerk and keep us waiting."

"Stop complaining," yawned Shikamira from the other side of the classroom. "He should be here soon. If waiting a couple minutes for a teacher is the worst thing that ever happens to you, you should consider yourself lucky."

"Who asked you?" Saki retorted. Mino, sensing a fight beginning to escalate, decided it was time to change subjects.

"Does anyone know who this 'Naruto Uzumaki' is, anyway?" he asked as he continued to pace back and forth in the front of the room in boredom.

"My mother and father know him, apparently," Shikamira said casually. "Apparently, he's a good friend of theirs, which makes no sense since I've never met him."

"Well _I_ heard rumors that this guy's supposed to be good," Saki said, looking up from her fingernails to Mino.

"He's a jonin," Shikamira said indifferently. "Of course he's good."

"No, I mean _really_ good," Saki said. "I overheard Kato saying that he was a war hero."

As if brought to the classroom by the discussion about him, Naruto suddenly appeared in the doorway, observing the genin. Naturally, his eyes first drifted to Saki, who looked exactly like Sakura did when she was a genin, with one exception – instead of her mother's hazel eyes, it seemed that the Uchiha genes won out and gave her black eyes. Otherwise, everything from her face, her body, her hair, and her disposition screamed 'Sakura Haruno'.

His eyes next drifted to the girl sitting a couple of chairs away from her. This must be Shikamira Nara. She had dirty blonde hair that she likely inherited from her mother, with the same bored expression that Shikamaru seemed to always wear. She looked like a tomboy, and her body language screamed 'lazy'. And to think that Tsunade called her 'easily excitable.' Heh.

Finally, he looked over to who he assumed would be his most interesting student, immediately looking into the concurrent circles in the boy's eyes. Mino Kano, mysterious user of the Rinnegan. Naruto was suddenly transported back to the last time he'd seen those eyes on his last mission with Sasuke before he left the village.

"Are you Naruto-sensei?" Mino asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Yeah, sorry I'm late," Naruto said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "I got into a bit of a fight with Tsunade. She wanted me to start looking over a couple of missions, and I told her I had to be here, but she told me you guys could wait a few minutes."

"You know Tsunade?" Saki asked, sounding as if she didn't know whether or not to believe him. Naruto chuckled in response.

"Of course I know her!" Naruto exclaimed. "She and I go _way_ back." Silence fell over the room, and all three genin looked at him rather expectantly. "So, I guess we should get going now."

"Where are we going?" Mino asked as the two girls stood up.

"The Third Training Ground," Naruto said, refusing to elaborate on what they would be doing. As soon as they stepped outside of the building, Naruto turned his head to see them. "Let's see if you can keep up with me."

Without waiting a single second, Naruto sprinted off, followed almost immediately by Shikamira. After a couple of seconds, Saki and Mino started to follow, with Saki speeding faster than Naruto would have expected.

He led them through a generally unused area of the village so that they could sprint without crashing into people or things, and he was surprised that they kept up pretty well considering they never had any real training before. It only took about half an hour to get to the other side of the village, where the training grounds were located. When they finally arrived at the Third Training Ground, Naruto had each of the genin sit by the three stumps.

"As I'm sure you already know, my name is Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto said once everyone was sitting. "I will be your sensei on Team 4, and I will be training you for a while. Since we'll all be working together, going on missions and whatnot, I think we should tell each other a little about ourselves."

"What sort of things?" Shikamira asked, her short, blonde hair falling in front of her face. She immediately shook her head to clear her view.

"You know, your likes, dislikes, goals," Naruto explained. "Those sort of things. I'll start. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen and the color orange. I dislike people who go back on their word. My dream…" Well, his 'dream' was to be Hokage, but that was pretty irrelevant now. He paused for a second to think about what he would consider to be his dream. Suddenly, the answer came to him. "My dream is to carry on my teacher's teachings, and that I will see a world with true peace." He looked around at his students and almost laughed at the expressions they gave. Saki rolled her eyes, Shikamira looked to be unsure about whether or not Naruto was serious, and Mino seemed to be containing a smirk…barely. "What about you guys? We'll start with you," he said nodding towards Saki.

"My name is Saki Uchiha," she said proudly. "I like a couple of things, but nothing in particular stands out. I dislike it when people assume that I'm an airhead just because I'm super popular, and my dream is to marry a very strong shinobi and help him raise a family."

'_Oh god, she's _worse _than Sakura was at that age,'_ Naruto thought to himself. _'She's conceited and she doesn't even know it.'_

"Good," Naruto said, trying to keep a poker face on. "Uh, now let's have you," he said, indicating Mino.

"My name is Mino Kano," he said with a self-confident smile. "I like girls, but dislike when they're obnoxious snobs." Naruto almost laughed when he gave a half-glance towards Saki. "My dream is to become the Hokage!" Naruto nodded in appreciation of his answer and turned to look at Shikamira expectantly.

"My name is Shikamira Nara," she said in a bored tone. "I'm not really a big fan of everything; I dislike things that are too troublesome." Well, she was definitely Shikamaru's daughter. Suddenly, she looked over at Saki and smirked. "And _my_ goal is not to just _marry_ a very strong shinobi; I'm going to actually _be_ one."

Saki looked up at this, and the two girls glared at each other. Naruto's eyes widened slightly, somewhat shocked that a daughter of Shikamaru would actually put the effort into some sort of rivalry with anyone. Then again, he shouldn't have expected any less to occur between Sakura and Ino's daughters. Naruto guessed the apples didn't fall far from the trees.

"Heh, that's great," Naruto said, observing the team dynamic. This team would make for a fun day. "Well, now I guess it's time for you guys to begin your first training exercise." He could barely contain his chuckle at this point.

"What's so funny?" Saki asked.

"Oh, it's just that I can't wait to see your faces when I tell you," Naruto said, starting to abandon containing his laughter, and instead letting it out a bit more until he was done. "Out of the 36 kids who graduated, only twelve are going to go forward to become genin. That means that it's very likely that you three will be sent back to the academy."

"What!?" Mino asked angrily, standing up from his position. "That's so unfair! We passed the graduation exam!"

"Now all you have to do is pass the bell test," Naruto said with a smirk, earning a confused look from the others. Before the question could be asked, he pulled out the two bells that he had once had to grab and held them out before the three genin. "Your task is to take these bells from me before noon. Whoever gets a bell can pass."

"But Naruto-sensei, there are only two bells," Mino asked, cocking his head to the side. Naruto smiled as silence momentarily shrouded over the children.

"He's telling us that only two of us can possibly pass this," Shikamira said with a groan. "Damn it, this is going to be so much work."

"That's exactly right, Shikamira," Naruto said with a smile. "So you guys better be able to handle this." He suddenly gave them all a serious expression. "You better come at me with intent to kill, or you will never be able to get the bells." He attached them to his weapon's pouch. "The test begins…" he stopped as he performed a hand sign. "…NOW!" with that, he vanished into thin air, leaving the other three standing around confused.

To her credit, Saki was the first to recover, immediately taking off into the woods of the training ground to find Naruto. Shortly behind her was Shikamira, who raced off behind her rival. Mino, on the other hand, turned to go in the opposite direction to find him.

Shikamira looked around, knowing that someone of a Jonin level would only be found if he wanted to be found. She stopped running and decided to stand in the clearing between a couple of trees, wide in the open. She prepared a substitution jutsu just in case, before deciding to figure out how to lure Naruto-sensei out.

She knew that Naruto would need a reason to come out, and so she started to think of a plan. What would Naruto-sensei come out for? Maybe some ramen? He said he liked it. Nah, that would be too obvious. It's a shame she didn't know enough about him to manipulate him well. Suddenly, an idea came to her.

She made a hand sign and made a clone. Her clone then made a hand sign on its own and transformed into Saki.

"You're such a snob!" Shikamira yelled out, hoping Naruto-sensei was within hearing range.

"I don't even know how someone like you could have possibly graduated from the academy," fake-Saki sneered. "I'm just glad that after you fail to get a bell, you'll be going back."

Saki, having heard a bit of the argument, hid in the bushes and looked on. It perplexed her for a moment to see herself fighting Shikamira, but she soon realized what was going on. Understanding Shikamira's plan, Saki immediately began to set some traps with wire and shuriken just in case Naruto was lured into the area by the faux fight.

Mino also heard the argument between Shikamira and fake-Saki, so he decided to go see what was up. Standing on the other side of the clearing from the real Saki, he groaned inwardly at the idea of Saki and Shikamira wasting their time fighting. He was torn between whether or not to stop them. He was about to enter the clearing to intervene when Naruto-sensei appeared on a branch above him, looking at Saki and Shikamira.

"If you guys keep fighting, you'll never get the bells," Naruto said from on top of the branch. It seemed like he didn't even see Mino there. Mino pulled out a kunai, realizing he had an advantage. "If you guys don't stop fighting, you'll –" Naruto-sensei stopped talking as Mino's thrown kunai lunged itself in his arm. Suddenly, Mino regretted throwing the kunai, wondering if he hurt Naruto-sensei. He was about to apologize when Naruto disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Damn it, it was a clone!" Shikamira said as fake-Saki disappeared in smoke.

Meanwhile, the real Naruto appeared behind Saki and leaned in to her ear.

"Boo," he whispered, causing the pinkette to jump a mile in the air. When she realized Naruto was right in front of her, she turned with a kunai in hand, ready to push Naruto into her trap. She lunged at Naruto, who backed away from the knife, before throwing it. The kunai barely scraped his jacket, and he seemed to disappear again in thin air.

Saki looked around for him and became disappointed for letting him go. She walked over towards her kunai to pick it up before she saw a bell lying on the ground. _'He must have dropped it when he avoided my kunai!'_ Saki exclaimed in her mind. She walked over to pick it up, and was suddenly pulled into the air, a wire around her ankle. _'Damn it! Naruto-sensei got me to fall for my own trap.'_ His work completed, Naruto appeared once more to pick the bell up.

"Lesson 1: Never forget your surroundings," Naruto told her before walking away.

Naruto soon found himself near the stumps where they began the exercise. He heard a rustling of the bushes behind him and turned to see Mino, standing with three shuriken in each hand. Naruto smirked, and wondered if he'd finally get to see what this kid could do. They stood, facing each other for a couple of moments, sizing each other up, before Mino made his move.

He threw the shuriken all at once, so Naruto jumped up to dodge them. He barely noticed Mino's smirk as the shuriken passed the spot Naruto had been standing in before he looked behind him to see the shuriken slice a wire on the ground. Startled, Naruto looked around him to see various weapons flying out from the brush in his direction.

He had to act quick, so he made a substitution, his body in the air being replaced by a small log. He appeared on the ground below the log, which was impaled by the weapons. Naruto had almost no time to recover before he had to raise a hand to block Mino's kick.

Mino continued to attack with taijutsu, kicking, punching, and charging at Naruto, for a couple of seconds while Naruto formulated a plan. The next time Mino kicked at him, Naruto grabbed his ankles and lifted him into the air, throwing him into a bush. Naruto took the brief moment to survey the damage the attack had done to the log and silently congratulated Mino on his cunning.

He heard a rustling in the bushes, so he threw a kunai in the direction. When all went still, he approached closer to see what he had hit. He looked through the bush and saw a large raccoon that had been startled by the kunai that landed close by.

"I'm sorry, little fella," Naruto cooed, reaching down to pick up the raccoon. "I thought you were a person." Instead of allowing itself to be picked up, the raccoon jumped and tackled Naruto to the ground before transforming into Mino. Mino straddled his sensei, holding his hands down next to his head. "You're good," Naruto said with a smirk. Mino pulled away and jumped off of him, holding one of the bells in a cocky manner. "But not good enough for me."

Naruto disappeared, and Mino suddenly realized that he had been fighting a clone. He furrowed his brow in frustration. What kind of clone jutsu allowed the user to be tangible? This wasn't an ordinary clone jutsu. He looked at the bell in his hand and realized that it felt weird for some reason. That was all that went through his mind before the bell transformed into a fully-grown Naruto, who tied a shocked Mino up with rope before he could even process that Naruto had transformed into his clone's own bell. When he finally understood what happened, he was already tied to a stump.

Naruto was walking back to see where his other students were when he realized that he was being followed. He abruptly stopped in his tracks as multiple Saki emerged from the woods around him. Knowing that she could only perform the clone jutsu and not the Shadow Clone Jutsu, Naruto figured that only one of the Saki he saw could be real.

"This will be fun," Naruto said as the Saki clones closed in on him. "I haven't battled an Uchiha in a while." He didn't give her time to think about what he meant before he performed his own Shadow Clone Jutsu, with his clones outnumbering Saki's vastly. "And these guys are tangible," every Naruto said at once.

Saki ended her clone jutsu, realizing she had lost, and climbed up a tall tree to a branch, standing on top of it. Naruto smirked at the fact that she wasn't going to back down, so he released his own jutsu, leaving just the two of them on the battlefield.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flame Jutsu!" Saki called out as dozens of small fireballs escaped from her mouth, heading towards Naruto.

Naruto, on the other hand, made a different set of hand signs, before calling out, "Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!" Small bullets of water that were roughly the same size as the fireballs shot out of his mouth, colliding with Saki's jutsu in mid-air. The fire was put out and the water evaporated.

Saki jumped down off the tree and began to rush at Naruto, making hand signs as she approached. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" She stopped her pursuit as a great fireball formed from her mouth, flying towards Naruto.

Naruto quickly made hand signs again to counter the fireball jutsu. "Wind Style: Gale Storm!" He breathed out and a great wind came forward, slicing through the center of the fireball and expanding until the entire flame had been put out.

Naruto pulled out one of the special kunai he had inherited from his father with the Flying Thunder God Seal on the handle and threw it at Saki. She crouched to dodge it, so Naruto performed the Flying Thunder God technique to transport to the kunai. Now standing behind Saki, he took advantage of the element of surprise and grabbed her.

Keeping her hands immobile, he brought her back to where Mino was, tied to a post, and proceeded to do the same to Saki. She struggled as he tied her, but he managed to complete his mission, leaving two of the three genin on team 4 behind him. Now he just had to find Shikamira.

Shikamira wasn't all that surprised that her 'teammates' had been captured so easily. It was ridiculous of them to actually try to confront a jonin-level shinobi and expect to win as a fresh graduate. If there was anything that she learned as a Nara and a Yamanaka, it was that there were ways other than confrontation to achieve your mission.

There were surprise attacks, mind tricks, deceptions.

While she wasn't very well practiced in the Yamanaka mind jutsu, she had started to learn her father's Shadow Possession Jutsu. All she had to do was lie in wait until Naruto came looking for her; she knew he would eventually. Until then, she'd stay in the bush.

Luckily, she didn't have to wait all that long; it was only about five minutes after she decided to just wait for Naruto-sensei that he showed up, probably looking for her. Being careful not to make a sound and alert her adversary to her position, she made the hand sign for the Shadow Possession Jutsu. Slowly, her shadow crept forward, and before Naruto knew what was going on, he was trapped.

"Not a bad move," Naruto commented as Shikamira stepped out of the shadows. Because of her jutsu, he took equal steps forward towards her. Finally, she stood with a triumphant smirk on her face, reveling in the feeling of victory. She slowly approached Naruto, and he was forced to approach her. Finally, when they were within arm's reach of each other, Shikamira bent forward to take a bell. Likewise, Naruto bent forward, but he gripped at thin air.

Her hands closed around the cool bell she now held in her hand. She was tempted to take both, but there was no reason. Saki and Mino were already indisposed. Besides, being greedy couldn't help her. She could already feel the jutsu starting to weaken.

"Congratulations," Naruto said before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. At first she was surprised, but she then realized that it was probably a clone that went looking for her in this direction. Then, she wondered why the clone would be carrying the real bells.

She realized what was going on just a split second too late.

The bell in her hand also disappeared in a puff of smoke, being replaced by a very tangible Naruto. The entire time, the real Naruto had transformed himself into his clone's bell. Of course, after transforming back, Naruto fell to the ground, as Shikamira dropped him during the transformation. But that split second of shock allowed Naruto to recover from the fall and pin Shikamira to the ground.

"Lesson #2: A ninja must always see through deception," Naruto said triumphantly.

And seconds later, she was back at the stumps, tied alongside Mino and Saki.

"I'm very disappointed in you three," Naruto said as he crouched down, looking at his students. "I'll give you one more chance to get these bells," he said, patting the bells on his belt, "but first I'm going to have some lunch with a friend."

"Hey, what about us?" Mino whined. "I didn't have any breakfast this morning! I'm starving!"

"Then we'll call this your punishment," Naruto said with a shrug as he stood. "I'll be back in an hour." With that, Naruto stood up and retreated from the training grounds.

An awkward silence fell over the three academy graduates as they sat, defeated and hungry. This was ridiculous. There had to be some sort of trick up Naruto-sensei's sleeve. Shikamira didn't believe for one minute that anyone would expect three students fresh out of the academy to stand up to a jonin-level shinobi. Even with her best strategy, Shikamira doubted that she'd ever be able to get a hold of one of the bells. It was completely unthinkable that Mino or Saki could either.

So why pose this challenge to them?

That was the key to this challenge. As soon as Shikamira understood what the point of the task was, she would be able to understand how to succeed.

First thing was first – she had to untie herself. She had positioned her kunai pouch in the minutes she waited for Naruto so that she could easily access it with her hands tied, just in case this situation occurred. It took a little maneuvering, but she was eventually able to open the pouch. The small sound of kunai clanging together as she tried to pull one out caught the attention of Mino and Saki.

They didn't matter. By the time Saki and Mino could warn Naruto that she'd escaped, she would already have implemented a plan. Walking back to the training grounds, Naruto would never expect to run into her. He would be unprepared, and she could ambush him. The logistics of the ambush already started working themselves out in her mind as she gripped the kunai (albeit awkwardly, due to the position), and sliced through the rope. She stood up, ignoring the looks from the other two.

"Aren't you going to help us?" Saki asked, causing Shikamira to scoff.

"Why would I do that?" Shikamira asked as she replaced the kunai in its pouch and gathered rope – she didn't know if it might come in handy. "You would just get in my way." She turned to walk away when Mino's voice stopped her.

"Don't tell me _you_ haven't figured it out yet," he said calmly from his position tied to the stump. Shikamira's eye twitched, wondering if Mino had discovered the point of the task before she did. It wouldn't be all that surprising; he had the most time to think about it, and he was one of the brighter kids in the academy. Finding out his ideas about the bell test could help Shikamira in her plans, so she turned around.

"It's all a game," she said, trying not to sound like she knew it. "There's no way he'd expect three graduates to outmatch him."

"Not alone," Mino clarified, garnering a perplexed look from Saki. Suddenly, Saki's face illuminated in understanding.

"Mino!" she exclaimed happily. "You're a genius!"

"What are you talking about?" Shikamira snapped, unhappy that even Saki had figured it out before her. "If you want me to untie you, you'd better tell me."

"It's all about teamwork," Mino said with a triumphant smile. The wheels began turning in Shikamira's mind. "That's why there are three of us, but only two bells. It's all a trick to pit us against one another. But if we team up, then we can take the bells; I'm sure of it."

"That's great and all," Shikamira said with a sigh, "but that doesn't change the fact that only two of us can pass. If we work together, how do we decide who's going back to the academy and who's becoming a genin?"

"We can decide that later," Mino urged. "If we don't work together, none of us will make it through."

Shikamira thought it through. The idea was a very basic one, and it was making more and more sense as she went through it in her mind. The reason that Naruto had purposely left the three of them together while he went for lunch wasn't to incapacitate them, it was to give them the time to talk it out and come to an understanding. The two bells were meant to deceive them and lead them away from the idea of teamwork and cooperation.

_A ninja must see through deception_.

Suddenly, a smirk broke through on Shikamira's face, and she ran back towards her teammates to free them from the stumps. As she did so, she quickly adjusted her plan to fit the new situation.

Lunch with Iruka was always nice for Naruto, especially now that he could tease him about Kakashi and gloat about having been right all along. But his hour was quickly running out, and he had barely gotten through four bowls of Ichiraku before he had to bid Iruka and Ayame a farewell to return to his team.

As he walked through the village streets, he wondered if they had figured it out. He had pretty high expectations for his team: one ninja was the child of Shikamaru and Ino, and was bound to have the brains of both her parents; another was an Uchiha, and while Naruto may admit that holding her to higher expectations because of her family would be unfair, he couldn't help but do so after the Uchiha he'd previously encountered, from Sasuke to Itachi to Madara; finally, there was Mino, the boy with the Rinnegan. While Naruto knew less about him than the others in many respects, he did know that Mino had a strong mind and would be able to use unfathomably strong ninjutsu in the future.

If the three of them actually teamed up, they could definitely pose a threat to most opponents. Naruto smirked at the idea of how they would be if they were teammates as adults at their full capacity. Saki and Mino with visual prowess and strong ninjutsu, Shikamira with her family jutsu and her intellect. Naruto was almost scared by the thought. _'I guess it _is_ true,'_ Naruto thought to himself. _'Every generation surpasses the last.'_

By now, Naruto had entered the forest and was nearing where he'd left the three students. He really wanted them to pass, although it seemed like Saki and Shikamira had some sort of rivalry with each other that they were stubborn about. Silly genin and their rivalries. Naruto couldn't fathom having a rival like that at their age.

Oh, wait.

Naruto chuckled to himself, so involved in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the trap that was set right under his feet.

He felt the earth disappear below him, and he jumped up at the last second to stop himself from falling in the pitfall. So, a genin had escaped the confinement. Was it only one, or was it all three?

Suddenly, small fireballs flew through the trees towards Naruto, so he jumped up, landing on a branch a fair ways up from the ground. The fire passed through where he had been standing and hit a tree. It was then that Naruto realized a rope was attached to the tree, and it was now burning. _A trap!_

Naruto jumped up into the air as two different tree trunks were released from opposite direction, flying on a pendulum towards where he was. If he stayed, he would be crushed between them. The two made contact in the center right where Naruto had been a moment earlier, and Naruto applauded Saki's prediction of his moves thus far.

In fact, he was so impressed that he didn't realize a second trap was set to go off after the trunks. Kunai flew at him from all directions, and he knew he couldn't avoid them. He had two options: get cut up, or use a substitution. It was a no brainer; he chose the latter.

As the small log was skewered in mid-air, the real Naruto appeared below, back on the ground, as Saki emerged from her hiding spot. Naruto pulled out a kunai, ready to fight her in hand-to-hand combat. But first, he leaned back and chuckled.

"I'm pretty impressed," he admitted. "You used your jutsu to force me to dodge, and set off a trap. Knowing there was only one place to go, you set a second trap to catch me when I couldn't defend myself."

"That's not all I did," came a voice from behind Naruto. Suddenly, another Saki stepped out from the woods behind him. Three more emerged from all around him, and he smirked. _A clone jutsu!_

All Naruto had to do was discover which of the Sakis in front of him was the real, tangible one. He threw his kunai at the one to his dead left, and it went right through. That wasn't the real one. He threw the other at the first Saki that emerged, and was grateful that the kunai hit a solid target. The tangible Saki in front of him pulled the kunai from her arm and ran at him with it, looking to stab him with it.

With a smirk, Naruto pulled out another kunai of his own and clashed with Saki in the middle. The two knives clanged against each other, and both ninja put their weight into their attack. The first Saki that Naruto had gone after went to kick him, but as the clone was intangible, it went right through him. Two more clones did the exact same thing, and Naruto smirked, wondering if Saki didn't quite understand how a clone jutsu worked.

That was his thought when the Saki that emerged from behind him kicked him in the side, sending him flying through the air into a tree. He grunted as the wind was knocked out of him, and stood up slowly, slightly confused as to how Saki's clone could be tangible. Could she have learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu?

His question was answered when the Saki that he had hit with the kunai and had charged at him directly turned into Mino in a puff of smoke, and the other Saki clones that were intangible disappeared. Suddenly, it all clicked in Naruto's mind, and he nodded in appreciation of the plan the two had come up with.

The two of them.

Shit.

Naruto realized what this was all working towards as the shadow from the tree from behind him connected with his own, trapping him in the Shadow Possession Jutsu. Slowly, Shikamira emerged from behind the tree, a triumphant smirk on her face.

She knew that Naruto wasn't a clone, because he didn't expect this attack at all. There was no way for him to get out of this one. Triumphantly, the three walked with Naruto forced to follow, back towards the stumps they were tied to earlier. Naruto ended up tied to the middle stump as the three graduates circled around the two bells lying on the ground.

"So who gets them?" Mino asked, announcing the question the other two had been wondering. "I think Shikamira gets one definitely, because she's the one who got us free from the stump and came up with the plan.

"No, you two should get it," Shikamira urged. "I was the last one to figure out that we had to work together. I would never last in a team with other ninja."

"I was the first one captured," Saki said, as if she was upset with herself. "I was reckless and got myself captured. I'd be a detriment to any team I'm placed on."

"None of you will be a burden to your team," Naruto announced from the stump. "As a matter of fact, if you'd untie me, I could congratulate you properly. You all pass."

******Remember to Review and check out my blog at **fanfics-sm . blogspot . com**for updates, chapter previews, and information about past, present, and future projects. You can also follow me on Twitter at** SMFanfics**.**


	6. 5: Memories of the Past

**Author's Note: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. I absolutely love hearing how you guys feel about the story. **

**Thanks to **SingingSparklyKuma **for betaing this chapter.**

Chapter 05: Memories of the Past

Sakura Uchiha sat down on the couch with Hinata, offering her guest a glass of wine. "Oh, no thanks," Hinata said politely. "Kiba and I are going out tonight."

"Ooh, special date?" Sakura asked her friend.

"We need to have one every once in a while," Hinata said with a laugh. "If you have some coffee, though, that would be great."

Although Hinata and Sakura were never the closest of friends in their youth, they were very good friends now. All the kunoichi from the Konoha 11 were. In fact, they spent one evening a week playing poker and drinking, catching up on each other's lives. They were all such a close-knit group of friends, and it helped that their respective husbands were all good friends, too.

Sakura returned from the kitchen and handed Hinata a small cup of coffee. She then sat down next to the brunet Hyuga, and picked up her glass of wine again.

"So, I hear a rumor going around town," Hinata said without explanation as she sipped her coffee. Sakura's eyebrow arched in question. "About a certain ninja…" Sakura still drew a blank. "…who happens to be your husband's ex-fiancé." Suddenly, Sakura understood why Hinata had decided to come over, and it wasn't just to return the soufflé pan she'd borrowed three and a half years ago.

"Sasuke and I both know that Naruto's alive," Sakura responded. "We also talked about it, and he told me that I have nothing to worry about." Of course, that didn't stop a part of Sakura from worrying. Even though she knew Sasuke was still in love with Naruto, a selfish part of her wanted to desperately cling to her comfortable life – the one she'd dreamed about since she was a child. Of course, it's not like her opinion mattered at all – Naruto was apparently over Sasuke.

"Really?" Hinata asked, sounding about as shocked as Sakura felt when they had the conversation. "So that's it? It's just done?"

"I guess so," Sakura said, downing the rest of her drink. She didn't exactly love talking about the state of her marriage. "What about you? How do _you_ feel knowing that Naruto's alive?"

"It's not that big of a deal," Hinata said with a shrug. "I think it was a bigger deal to Kiba than it was to me, actually," the shy woman admitted. "I think he was really pissed off more than anything."

"Sasuke felt the same way," Sakura said, reaching over to the glass she had poured for Hinata before she had declined the offer. "I mean, he never actually said it, but he's been so angry ever since he found out. I guess a part of me understands – I'm a little mad at Naruto, too. But I'm more happy than anything else."

Hinata nodded. The housewife was about to respond when the front door slammed open, and a pink haired girl ran inside, wearing a proud smile on her face.

"I passed!" Saki said, not even noticing that her mother was entertaining company at the moment. "Oh, sorry," she said, bowing her head at Hinata. "How are you, Aunt Hinata?"

"I'm well," Hinata said, inclining her head slightly in thanks.

"What do you mean you passed?" Sakura asked her daughter. "I thought the graduation exams were yesterday."

"They _were_," Saki said, sitting down on the chair next to the sofa to face the two middle-aged women. "But today, when we met our sensei, he gave us another test. We were supposed to take a bell from him in a certain amount of time. But here's the twist: he only had two bells." Sakura had to suppress a smirk, as her daughter rambled at a fast pace.

"So Mino and Shikamira and I – oh, those are my teammates, I think I forgot to tell you – were all trying on our own to beat Naruto-sensei and take the bells," Saki continued, not noticing the exchange of glances between Hinata and Sakura.

'_She wouldn't,_' Sakura thought to herself. _'Oh, who am I kidding? It's Lady Tsunade – of _course_ she would_.'

"He beat all three of us, and tied us to stumps while he went out to lunch," she continued, "but Mino figured out that we had to work together. So Shikamira untied us and we set a trap for him, and ended up capturing him in a Shadow Possession Jutsu! He was so impressed that he let all three of us pass."

"You said _Naruto_ was your sensei?" Hinata asked after the story ended.

Saki nodded. "Yeah, Shikamira said that her parents know him. Do you guys know him too?" Hinata tried and failed to suppress a smirk while looking over towards Sakura.

"Yes, Naruto is a friend of your father's and mine," Sakura answered.

"Why have I never heard of him before?" Saki asked with a confused look on her face.

"Well, he's been away on a mission for a really long time," Sakura explained, not wanting to give the full story to her daughter. "He hasn't been in the village since before you were born."

"One of my classmates told me that he's supposed to be a big deal or something," Saki said. "But if he's that big a deal, why haven't I heard of him?"

"We don't like to talk about him," Sakura said, knowing that she would have to explain it further.

"But I thought you said he was your fr–" Saki began.

"It's complicated," her mother cut in harshly, knowing that the only way to really provide a sufficient answer would be to out her husband to their children. "Why don't you go wash up? Your father and your brother will be home soon, and you can help me cook dinner." Saki gave her a strange look, but complied with her mother's request.

When she was sure that her daughter was finally out of earshot, Sakura sighed and turned back to her guest.

"I'm sorry about that," she said with an embarrassed smile. "She asks _way_ too many questions sometimes."

"I don't pity you on the day you and Sasuke have to explain everything to them," Hinata said. Sakura didn't even want to think about that. Her children all looked up to her father as the shining example of what they should be. And while she's sure that they didn't raise them to be homophobic, Sakura couldn't help but wonder how the children would react to finding out that their father was attracted to _men_ as well as women?

Days passed since Naruto returned to the village, and the days soon turned into weeks. The shock of being back was starting to wear off, and his team was shaping up to be pretty talented. Saki and Shikamira still fought a lot, but he and Mino had begun to learn how to pull them out of arguments.

They'd already been on four D-Rank missions, and Naruto was starting to remember the feeling he got when he was a genin after a spell of easy missions. He closed his eyes, remembering his first dangerous mission in the Land of Waves. He didn't think that his team was anywhere near ready enough to face S-Ranked criminals like Zabuza, or talented kekkei-genkai users like Haku, but their talents sure were being wasted by searching for missing cats and planting crops for lazy farmers.

Luckily, their lax schedule allowed them more time to train individually and as a team. Naruto was a little rusty when it came to some of his jutsu, but they were slowly coming back to him. He silently vowed never to take a break from training again. It was hard to do the Flying Thunder God technique when he was training every day – after a twenty year break, he was surprised he didn't accidentally kill himself.

He was also incredibly grateful for his chakra reserves. Between his own immense chakra that he'd inherited from his family and the chakra that Kurama gave him, he probably wouldn't be able to train as hard.

The last few days, he spent training with his students one on one. He decided to start with Shikamira Nara.

She was incredibly talented at ninjutsu. She had inherited her father's clan's Shadow jutsu and her mother's clan's Mind jutsu, although she was only adept at using her father's. She promised she would begin practice on the Mind Transfer Jutsu soon, but Naruto told her not to worry.

"Your family jutsus are incredibly powerful," he'd told her, "but you have to learn some other supplementary skills as well. If an opponent finds a flaw in your jutsu, you'll want to have a trump card."

He began to teach her the Shadow Clone Jutsu. While it was technically considered a forbidden jutsu, it was one that Naruto found essential to his fighting repertoire, and he could see where Shikamira would find it useful as well. When she eventually did master both of her familial jutsus, she could create a Shadow Clone to do one, while she herself did the other. Essentially, she could combine the 'Ino-Shika' of the famous 'Ino-Shika-Cho' formation into one person.

She struggled with it, but Naruto definitely saw some progress. It was easier for him when he'd first learned it, since he learned it out of the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing, and he had an immense chakra reserve to work with. He was very patient with her, and had her start training by perfecting her clone jutsu, which was still a little shaky.

By the time they ended their training that day, she had all of the hand signs down pat, and she had the fundamentals of the jutsu under her belt. She just needed a little practice in the practical use of the jutsu before she could do it.

The next day, he spent training with Saki Uchiha. He felt a little awkward around her, for obvious reasons, but he never showed it outwardly, lest she know that something was up between him and her parents.

Saki was also incredibly talented. She had learned some of the basic Uchiha Fire-Release techniques, like the Phoenix Flower Jutsu, and the Fireball Jutsu. Naruto wouldn't be able to work as easily with her Fire-Release, since he couldn't use any of the jutsus himself, but he promised to find some Fire-Release scrolls to give her, and to work on a different technique with her in the meantime: taijutsu and weapons use.

She wasn't _bad_ at it, per se. Actually, that's a lie. She was downright awful.

He started by telling her to come at him without the use of ninjutsu. She was able to run, and she was able to throw a kunai close enough to him that he couldn't say she had bad aim, but she was still terrible undertrained for hand-to-hand close combat. He made a mental note to ask Lee to help him with Saki's taijutsu training.

She threw punch after punch at him, kick after kick, and it was just weak. If she ever really had to rely on taijutsu in combat, she would be hopeless. Naruto told her that she had to start training to get stronger, to do exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, and weight training. She didn't like hearing that she had to work out a little bit, but she understood why.

"My taijutsu will be better when I get my Sharingan," she said, hoping that the promise of her ocular jutsu would negate the requirement to train. "I've been trying to get it to come out, but it's not working."

"Well, until you get your Sharingan, you'll need to learn how to fight properly, and in order to fight properly, you'll need a little more muscle," Naruto replied, lifting her skinny arm to show her. "You don't need much, just enough to make a punch hurt."

Naruto didn't doubt that when and if Saki's Sharingan came in, she would be a force to be reckoned with. Her father and brother would doubtlessly train her to be a splendid Sharingan user, just as they are. But until then she couldn't fight enemies with the promise of a future power.

Tomorrow, he would be down to the last student to tutor: Mino Kano. He'd been thinking about what to do with him for a while. Naruto couldn't help him learn how to use the Rinnegan, so he decided he would ask Sasuke to help with that aspect of the training. But he still wondered what he could teach the boy.

The Rasengan is far too advanced for someone Mino's age. Any elemental release would be a waste of time, as the Rinnegan gave the user an affinity to all elements. The Rinnegan also gave great summoning power to its user, so Naruto couldn't even teach him the Summoning Jutsu.

Naruto was still contemplating this when he heard a knock on his door. He groaned as he pulled himself off his bed and slowly made his way over towards the door to his room. He was tired after a full day of training. All he wanted was some sleep.

He opened the door with a glare on his face, ready to whine to whoever was disturbing him. But when he opened the door, he saw Lady Tsunade standing there impatiently.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, his exhaustion evident in his voice.

"Just because I'm glad to have you back doesn't mean you can go ignoring me when I summon you to my office, brat," Tsunade said, letting herself into the room as Naruto stood by the door.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, his brows knitting together. "You didn't summon me."

He watched as Tsunade picked up a piece of paper from the desk that stood in the corner of the room. He hadn't once used it since he moved in.

"What do you call this?" Tsunade said, holding up what was, apparently, a summons to her office. She crumpled it in her hands and threw it at Naruto, who caught it without flinching. He unwrinkled the paper, and read what she had written.

"Okay, so now that you're here, do you mind telling me what this is about?" Naruto asked, walking over to flop on the bed. He buried his face in his pillow, but kept his ears open to listen to whatever Tsunade was about to go on about.

"There was an assassination attempt on the Sixth Mizukage," Tsunade told him, expecting a big response.

"Well, since you called it an _attempt_, I assume he's still alive?" Naruto asked, earning a glare from the Hokage – not that he could see it. "How does this affect me?"

Tsunade growled impatiently. "I refuse to talk to you until you act like a mature adult and decide to come to my _office_, instead of acting like a tired little child who wants to take a nap." Tsunade stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Two paintings on the wall fell to the ground as the door slammed, and Naruto was pretty sure one of the hinges on that door was now broken.

He groaned again as he sat up. He put on some slippers, and pulled off his sleep hat, before walking into his bathroom to splash some water on his face. After he was sufficiently awake enough that he wouldn't fall asleep in Tsunade's office, he decided to make his journey up the stairs, where he was sure Tsunade would be waiting for him.

He wondered as he climbed the stairs why Tsunade reacted like that. Sure, he was being a _little_ disrespectful, but throwing a tantrum seemed to be a little bit of an overreaction, if you asked him.

He walked down the hallway and knocked twice on the door. When he heard Tsunade invite him in, he opened the door and walked in, his head bowed in humility.

"I'm sorry for being disrespectful," Naruto said. "It's been a long day. I'm ready to discuss this assassination attempt now. How does this affect me?"

"I'm _trying_ to groom you to be Hokage when I step down," Tsunade told him impatiently. "International affairs like this are directly in your purview. Furthermore, when there is an assassination attempt on one kage, all the other kage must be wary."

"Why?" Naruto asked with a confused look. "It might just be someone who's discontent with the way their village is being run. It might not have international implications."

"You don't understand," the Hokage said, shaking her head. "This isn't the same world it was after the war. With the exception of our alliance with the Sand, things have reverted to the way they were before, for the most part. The Mist has been isolating themselves, to the point where we have no idea the state of affairs in the village.

"There is a civil war brewing in the Stone village as well. The Cloud has returned to their old habit of collecting powerful techniques. They kidnapped a kekkei genkai user from the Land of Hot Water last year. And then there are the minor villages – the Waterfall Village, the Grass Village, the Rain Village. Their leaderships are unstable, and there is much unrest there as well."

Naruto was horrified by the state of world affairs. He still remembered his promises – to Nagato, to Jiraya, to Tobi, to himself. _"I will find a road to peace._" The end of the Fourth Shinobi World War didn't bring peace, but it came close enough that Naruto was satisfied. The Five Great Nations were at peace with each other, and the world seemed to be fine.

In his years in the Sand village, he allowed himself to lose track of the world. He wouldn't be able to make a difference anymore, lest people find out he was alive. He had to stay under the radar, and that meant giving up his promise for a while.

But to think the world deteriorated to this extent! It was horrifying. The way Tsunade made it out to be, it was as if the world was on the brink of war again.

"The man behind the assassination attempt, Sho Nakamrua, has fled the village," Tsunade told him. "Most reports say that he has gone to the Land of Earth, far away from our village and his. But that still doesn't erase the consequences. If the Mizukage decides to pursue his attacker, he will be sending Mist shinobi into the Stone's country. That could bring about tragic international conflict, which is all the more tragic considering the instability in the Stone."

"You think they're going to war," Naruto surmised from her tone, in awe that such a huge deal could seem so out-of-the-blue to him. It was amazing that in minutes, his rose-colored glasses about the world were shattered. Gaara's words from weeks ago came back to him, unbidden. _The peace is slowly coming to an end._

_And the real culprits behind Suna's attack are still unknown,_ Naruto reminded himself.

"I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that from happening," Tsunade said. When Naruto looked up at her with a confused look, she smirked. "You're not the only one who has a vested interest in peace," she said. "Your master's dream is also my best friend's dream."

"I hear people talking about me," came a voice from the doorway. Naruto looked over his shoulder to see Jiraya standing there, looking much older and weaker than he had when Naruto saw him two weeks ago. It scared him a little bit. "What are you guys conspiring about?"

"Your next mission," Tsunade said before Naruto got a chance to answer. Naruto looked back at Tsunade with a look of utter shock, a look that he was sure Jiraya was sharing.

"With all due respect, Tsunade," Jiraya began, "I don't think I'm exactly qualified to be going on many more missions, even if I am one of the Sannin."

"You're _over_qualified for this mission, Jiraya," Tsunade argued, and suddenly Naruto felt like he wasn't even in the room any more. "I assume you heard about the assassination attempt?"

"I did," Jiraya said with a somber nod. "It's bad news, Tsunade, but unless you're assigning me to be the Mizukage's next bodyguard, I don't see how you'd like me to help."

"I need you to go to the Mist as my envoy," Tsunade said. "I'll give you a jonin escort – Iruka Umino, Konohamaru Sarutobi, and Choji Akimichi should be sufficient. You need to go to Kiri and convince the Mizukage not to pursue this would-be assassin into the Land of Earth."

"That's why the guy has _advisors_, Tsunade," Jiraya said with an exasperated tone. "I guarantee you that this will not be necessary."

"If you would _let me finish_," she said with a growl and a matching glare, "then you would know that that's not the only reason you have this mission." She paused, and Naruto grew more confused about her behavior. "Close the door and sit down," she told her former teammate. Jiraya obliged, taking the empty chair next to Naruto.

Tsunade pushed her chair from her desk and stood up, walking over to the window directly behind the desk. Naruto sensed movement behind him, and turned to see an ANBU member wearing an owl mask standing directly behind him and Jiraya. Tsunade turned back around.

"Lose your mask for this," she told the ANBU member. He dropped the mask, and Naruto was shocked at how familiar the man looked. He was like a carbon-copy of Asuma Sarutobi, with only one difference – his eyes. He had his mother's eyes. "For this mission, your name will be 'Shio,' is that understood?"

"Yes, milady," the man said, bowing his head slightly.

"Tsunade," Jiraya began, before the Hokage could explain any of this. "Are you sure Naruto should be here for this?"

"Naruto will be my successor," Tsunade told the toad sage. "He needs to know what I do." She clearly expected this to be sufficient for him, but Jiraya continued.

"And what about Shikaku and Inoichi?" he asked. "Shouldn't you wait for the elders before you assign a mission?"

"This mission is top-secret," Tsunade said. "The elders will hear a version of it, but I will only tell the three of you what the true mission is." The room fell silent, everyone waiting for Tsunade to tell them this secret mission. "Jiraya, you will go to Kiri with an escort consisting of Choji, Konohamaru, and Iruka…and Shio. While there, not only will you try to persuade the Sixth Mizukage not to send ninja to pursue his attempted assassin, but you will also try to establish an alliance between the Mist and the Leaf." The room was silent as the three waited for more information.

"I don't expect the Mizukage to cooperate," she told them. "As a matter of fact, I expect them to be downright hostile, and probably kick you out."

"Then what's the point?" Naruto asked Tsunade, obviously not picking up on the subtext of the conversation.

"The point is that they will be allowed in," Tsunade said. "And once they are allowed in, we will be able to place Shio as a spy in their village. We can no longer afford to stay ignorant about the state of affairs in Kiri. This news is troubling, and what's even more so is that the assassination attempt happened months ago, and this is the first we've heard about it." Naruto took a moment to absorb the enormity of that statement. Who knows what could have happened in the last few months there?

"Don't you think the Mist shinobi will find it suspicious that Jiraya showed up with four ninja and left with three?" Naruto asked.

"He won't leave with three," Tsunade told him, looking at Shio. Naruto turned to follow her gaze, and stared into Shio's unblinking, red eyes, as if hypnotized. She didn't elaborate on her statement. "Tomorrow, I expect both of you," she said, indicating Jiraya and Shio, "to show up to officially receive the mission to be peace envoys to the Mist. Konohamaru, Iruka, and Choji will be there waiting, and you will leave before noon."

Shio and Jiraya both accepted the mission, and they left Tsunade and Naruto alone to discuss one more thing.

"How is Team 4 doing?" Tsunade asked her hopeful successor. "Do you think they're ready to handle harder missions?"

"That depends on how hard you're talking about," Naruto admitted. "They still have a lot to work on, especially when it comes to their teamwork." Tsunade nodded in understanding. "Shikamira is doing well with her ninjutsu training, but she relies too much on the Shadow Possession Jutsu. Saki is good at ninjutsu, too, but her taijutsu is some of the worst I've ever seen. And then there's Mino…"

"I take it you spoke to Maya, like I suggested?" Tsunade asked. Naruto nodded.

"She said his father has the same eyes," Naruto said quietly. "She sounded so sure of it, I don't think she's lying."

"But the only two people to ever awaken the Rinnegan are Sasuke and Madara," Tsunade said. "Let's assume that Madara's eyes are the ones in Mino, since they are the only pair unaccounted for."

"Then whose eyes did Harame have?" Naruto asked. "According to your pictures, Harame still had his Rinnegan when he died, which means…"

"We have two pair of Rinnegan unaccounted for," Tsunade concluded. "One that belong to Mino, and one to his father, whoever he is." Tsunade paused as she sat back down at her desk. "We came up with a theory a few years ago to explain this – I figured it could also explain how Harame got his eyes as well." Naruto was silent, allowing her to elaborate. "What if there is some branch of the Uchiha family that either left the village or wasn't a part of the clan when the village was established? They could have the same eyes, but have no relation to the Leaf. In fact, it might have evolved to the point where the Rinnegan was awakened early instead of the Sharignan."

"But according to Maya, Mino is unable to turn his Rinnegan off, meaning that it was likely implanted," Naruto argued. "And if her one-night stand had an active Rinnegan while outside of battle, it's likely that it was implanted into him as well." Tsunade was silent as she contemplated.

"There's a chance that the Rinnegan could have evolved as well," she suggested. "Maybe these users can't just 'turn it off.'"

"We have no answers right now," Naruto admitted. "Only questions. I'll make sure to look into it." Tsunade nodded, and the room became quiet. "Now, what's this you were saying about more advanced missions?" Naruto asked, a smile growing on his face. Tsunade smirked back at him.

"I have a possible mission for you guys," she told him. "It's a C-Ranked mission, and it involves a trip home for you." Naruto's eyes lit up, when he heard that, but he still shook his head.

"Konoha is my home," he said. "But if you need me to go on a mission to Suna, I won't object. It'll be nice to see Gaara."

"We have supplies that need to be transported to the Sand," Tsunade explained. "I'll be sending your team, and maybe another genin team to help. Oh, and don't worry, you guys can stay a few days. I'm sure Gaara will be more than accommodating."

"I have one request, though," Naruto told her. "In the interest of training my genin, I'd like Lee and Sasuke to come with us instead of another genin team. I want Lee to help me train Saki in taijutsu, and I'd like Sasuke to help Mino learn use his Rinnegan to its full potential."

"I guess that can be arranged," Tsunade said, looking down at a couple of papers. "I was planning on giving Team Neji a mission, but if you need Lee and Sasuke, I'll just assign their whole team to help you and give their mission to Team Kiba."

"Kiba has his own team?" Naruto said, trying to contain a smirk.

"You can go now," Tsunade told him, ignoring the unspoken jibe. "You have some beauty sleep to catch up on."

But Naruto didn't want to sleep anymore. Now, he had a specific person he wanted to see – although for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. He knew he shouldn't play with fire like this, but he couldn't help it. He raced across rooftops in the village to his destination.

When the village was rebuilt from scratch after the Invasion of Pain, the village planners decided to put a new training ground where the Uchiha Corridor had once stood – without any Uchiha living in the village, there was really no need to devote an entire section of the village to them. When Sasuke had returned, he was given a nice, large house near the training grounds in which to live. Anything that could be scavenged from the ruins of the Uchiha Corridor were given to him, and he was free to continue his life there.

It was where he and Naruto spent so much time together. It was where they had their first time. And it was where Sasuke had slept in the same bed as Sakura for the last nineteen years.

Naruto finally reached the Uchiha house, and began to slow his pace. By the time he reached the doorstep, he had slowed down significantly, and was almost standing still.

So much had changed – the door had been repainted, the windows reframed. He could see into the house. The living room looked different. The furniture was completely different – Sasuke didn't seem to keep the sofa that they had their first time on. He could see the table that had once held numerous pictures – of his parents, his brother, Kakashi, Sakura, but mostly Naruto, of the two of them together – now held pictures of new faces.

He saw Neji, Lee, Shikamaru, and Sasuke in one. _Team Neji_, Naruto realized. There was one next to it with Sasuke, Sakura, and a young pre-teen who looked exactly like his father. A small pink-haired girl who could only have been four or five stood between her parents, while the older boy stood next to Sasuke, on the outside. In Sakura's hands was a small bundle of blankets, and Naruto could see the cute little face staring at the camera. _What a happy family_. Even Sasuke had a smile on his face.

The next picture was one of Sakura, Hinata, Ino, and Tenten, all sitting at a table playing cards. Next to that was one of Ino, Sakura, Saki, and Shikamira, that seemed to be from about four or five years ago. He could see from the looks on the young girls' faces that their rivalry was not a recent thing.

Next to that was a picture of the eldest Uchiha sibling with his genin team. He was standing in the middle, in front of…wait, no…that couldn't be…_Konohamaru_!? The Third's grandson was wearing his signature all-too-long scarf with a goofy smile on his face. On the Uchiha boy's left was a girl with pale eyes, that Naruto could only assume was a Hyuga child. She had dark hair, and an orange jacket on. On the Uchiha boy's right was a boy with shocking green eyes and light blue hair.

There were more family pictures – one of just Sakura and Sasuke that seemed to be a wedding picture – a few baby pictures, and one picture of just the three kids together that seemed to be quite recent. _What a happy family_, Naruto thought once more, a little upset that he wasn't able to be the one to give that to Sasuke.

_Why am I thinking like that?_ Naruto wondered. _I mean, yeah, I once dreamed that I could give him a family, but it couldn't happen. We grew apart, and now he has the family he always wanted. Sakura has the family she always wanted, with the husband she always wanted. Everything worked out._

He knocked on the door twice and waited. And waited. And waited. And just when he thought that no one was home and was ready to turn around and leave, the door opened to reveal Sakura Haruno – no, Uchiha…Sakura Uchiha.

"Naruto?" she asked. "What are you doing here so late? Do you need to talk to Saki?"

"Uh, no," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head anxiously. "I was actually looking for Sasuke, if he's home."

"Yeah, he's upstairs," Sakura said happily. "Come in, I'll go get him down here for you."

"It's alright, I can go upstairs," Naruto offered. "It's the third door on the left still, right?" Suddenly, Sakura's expression looked a little more strained than it was before, and she gave a nervous chuckle.

"Heh, yeah," she said. "I almost forgot that you used to live here." Naruto flinched inwardly. _Great job, Naruto,_ he told himself. _Way to make things awkward_. Without another word, Naruto entered the house and walked up the staircase that would lead to the bedrooms.

He felt like he was in a time machine. Even though everything was different from the color of the carpeting to the wall paper, he couldn't help but remember the last time he was in this house.

_The wind blew through Naruto's hair as he looked off the balcony onto the training grounds. In the cool, evening night, it looked so peaceful, just like a plain of grass. He heard the door open up behind him, and turned to see Sasuke, clad in only his boxers and a t-shirt, step out onto the balcony._

"_I thought I'd find you out here," Sasuke said quietly. "You like to come here when you need to think." He walked forward to join Naruto. They both stared off at the balcony in the same direction._

"_I'm sorry," Naruto said in an equally quiet voice. "I know I've been distant the last few days."_

"_It's understandable," Sasuke replied. "You were attacked for no reason; our wedding was ruined."_

"_I still want to get married sometime," Naruto said, not realizing that he could be saying a bit too much._

"_I figured that was the plan," Sasuke said with a smirk. He turned to look at Naruto. "What about tomorrow?" he asked. "We don't have to make a big deal out of it like last time. It could just be the two of us, Jiraya, Kakashi, Sakura, and Tsunade." He paused, and Naruto opened his mouth, as if to speak. Sasuke didn't let him though. "And Iruka, too, of course. I know you'll want him there."_

"_We can't do this tomorrow," Naruto said quietly, still not looking at his fiancé. "I'm going on a mission tomorrow, that's what Tsunade spoke to me about."_

"_Then we'll do it whenever you get back," Sasuke said, a smile lighting up his face. "We can take a little break from our missions while we honeymoon. We could go to the Land of Lightning if you want, or maybe just stay here and rest." Sasuke frowned as he saw a tear slide down Naruto's cheek. "What's wrong?"_

"_Nothing," Naruto whispered, wiping his face with his sleeves. "I just can't wait to be your husband." Sasuke's smile returned. "We'll definitely get married when I come back."_

Naruto knocked on the door to the master bedroom – it had been his and Sasuke's, but now it was Sasuke's and Sakura's – and the door, which wasn't completely closed, opened to reveal an empty room. Naruto took a step inside and saw Sasuke was standing out on the balcony, where they had been that night, staring out onto the training grounds. The sliding glass door that led to the balcony was halfway open, and Naruto went through it to join Sasuke.

"Hey," he said as he approached from behind. Sasuke turned around, startled by his appearance, before turning back forward. Naruto stepped forward to join him, and they both looked out, standing in the reverse position from that night.

"Hi," Sasuke said shortly, not offering up much chit-chat. He seemed to have been absorbed in his thoughts before Naruto barged in.

"I was wondering if you could do me a favor," Naruto said, his voice as quiet as it had been twenty years ago. Sasuke didn't respond, so Naruto decided to elaborate. "One of my genin, a boy named Mino Kano, somehow has –"

"The Rinnegan," Sasuke finished for him. "I know." Naruto gave him a confused look, so Sasuke rolled his eyes and explained. "Who do you think was one of the first people brought into the investigation on his Rinnegan when he and his mother showed up?"

"Tsunade has a theory –" Naruto began, but Sasuke interrupted once more.

"That he's descendant from a side branch of the Uchiha clan," he supplied. "I know." Naruto gave him another look. "You're late to the party on this one."

"Well, that's besides the point," Naruto said. "What I wanted to ask is –"

"You want to know if I'll help you train Mino to use his Rinnegan," Sasuke interrupted once more, giving Naruto a pointed look.

"You know, you should really let me finish a sentence," Naruto muttered. Sasuke quirked an eyebrow. "But yeah, that's what I wanted to ask."

"I don't have time," Sasuke said with a shrug. "I have a mission to go on, a family to spend time with. I'm helping Ako and Saki with their jutsu, I don't have time to become Mino's sensei too. That's _your_ job."

"I just thought you could help, since you're the only other person on the planet that we know of who knows how to use the Rinnegan," Naruto said. "What crawled up your ass and died today?"

"Nothing," Sasuke said, pushing himself away from the balcony's sidebar. "Is that all you came here for?" He crossed his arms and looked at Naruto.

"Of course," Naruto said. "What else would I be here for?" Sasuke looked away from Naruto, back towards the training grounds. He turned his body to face it, like it had been before.

They were silent. Naruto had already asked what needed to be asked, so why was he still there? What was the point? He just couldn't seem to pull himself away. Their shoulders were almost touching. Finally, Sasuke decided to break the silence.

"You knew then, didn't you?" he asked, his voice a lot softer than it had been before. Naruto was silent. "That night…that last night. You said you would marry me when you came back. You knew already, didn't you?"

Naruto sighed. "Yeah," he finally said. "I did."

"It was a lie," Sasuke said. It wasn't a question.

"Tsunade said it would be easier if you didn't know," Naruto said quietly.

"She was wrong –" Sasuke began to say, turning towards the blond, before Naruto interrupted him.

"No, she was completely right," Naruto argued. "If you knew that I was going into hiding for a while, you never would have given up on me. You would have remained faithful, and never moved on. You wouldn't have married Sakura, and you wouldn't have your three children." Sasuke went quiet and looked away. "I saw the pictures on the sidetable by the door. You were happy until I came back. Don't lie to me."

"I was happy," Sasuke agreed quietly. "But I would have been happier with you. This should have been _our_ family," he said, motioning towards the house in a sweeping gesture. His voice was growing louder. "It should have been you that I woke up next to for the last two decades, not _her_."

"_She_," Naruto said sharply, "is your wife, who loves you more than anything, except maybe your kids." Sasuke looked away, having enough gall to look ashamed by the way he spoke of the mother of his children. Another tense silence fell over them until Sasuke spoke up.

"You love Gaara." Again, it wasn't a question.

"Yes," Naruto said calmly.

"You don't love me," Sasuke said, this time sounding a little less sure.

Naruto wanted to say _yes_, but he couldn't. Something was stopping him. "What we had is over," he settled for instead.

"That wasn't my question," Sasuke said. Again, silence.

After a few moments of Naruto looking out on the training grounds and Sasuke staring at Naruto intensely, Sasuke reached over and placed a hand on Naruto's cheek, rubbing his hands over the whisker marks.

Naruto watched Sasuke's eyes momentarily flicker to his lips. He could see Sasuke getting closer, very slowly. He seemed paralyzed. He knew this was bad. Sasuke's entire family was inside, and Sasuke was leaning in to _kiss_ him.

He wasn't sure whether his senses came over him, or whether it was the sound of someone opening the bedroom door inside, but Naruto turned his face in the opposite direction from Sasuke, and the raven followed suit half-a-second later. Naruto heard footsteps behind them, and turned around to see Saki standing there.

"Oh, hi, Naruto-sensei," she said, surprised to see him there. She obviously hadn't witnessed their "moment." "I didn't know you were here."

"I was just leaving," Naruto said, pushing himself away from the railing and walking past his student. When he reached the door, he turned around again. "Oh, Saki, make sure to meet me at the bridge tomorrow morning. We're getting a new mission."

**Author's Note: We're getting to some interesting stuff. We'll be seeing different missions to different areas, and we're going to start connecting things back to the prologue that left a few people confused.**

**Please review and check out my blog at **fanfics-sm . blogspot . com **for updates, chapter reviews, and information about past, present, and future projects. You can also fallow me on Twitter at **SMFanfics**.**


	7. 6: The Mission to Suna

**Author's Note: Sorry for the late chapter...I've been busy because of finals. Too many all nighters -_-.**

**Thanks to **SingingSparklyKuma **for betaing this chapter.**

Chapter 06: The Mission to Suna

It was midday when the three teams heading off on out-of-village missions were met at the gate by the Hokage.

"You all understand your missions in their entireties?" she asked the group of thirteen gathered shinobi. She gave Jiraya and Shio a pointed look when she said 'entireties,' and every ninja present gave an affirmative response. Jiraya's team was the first to leave.

Konohamaru and Naruto had a little time that morning to catch up before being sent off on their respective missions, but Naruto wished they had longer. It was the only time Naruto got to talk to his friend since he returned. Naruto wished the team good luck as they left, hoping that their mission would be a success.

Team 4 and Team Neji left next. They had to go to a nearby village where a caravan of wagons were waiting with supplies to be escorted to Suna. Despite all of the greenhouses that opened up in Suna for agricultural purposes over the last few decades, the village was still in desperate need of some herbs and medicines for their sick and wounded, and the lumber that would help fix broken structures was sparse in the Land of Wind.

It was a good thing, in retrospect, that Tsunade put a jonin team with the caravan instead of putting just two genin teams. If there were enemies to the Sand out there willing to attack the village, then it was likely that a caravan carrying aid to the recovering village would be attacked en route.

During the entire trip to the meeting point, Naruto refused to speak to – or even look at – Sasuke. He still felt guilty for last night. He wasn't completely sure whether he would have let Sasuke kiss him or not if Saki hadn't chosen that moment to interrupt.

Naruto instead passed the time by talking to Neji and Lee. Lee was still pining over Sakura, but he made it much less obvious than when they were teenagers. Despite being nearly forty years old, he still liked to ramble on about the Springtime of Youth, and was still hyperactive enough to put Naruto to shame.

Neji was a different story. It seemed that he was another member of the Konoha 11 who ended up marrying his teammate, although to be fair, he and Tenten were dating before Naruto left the village. They'd been married for sixteen years – she was apparently afraid of commitment for a while – and they now had a daughter together, Tomaki, who would be starting the academy at the same time as the youngest Uchiha child.

The two teams made great time to their destination, and were able to meet up with their caravan by dusk. Instead of setting out so late, they decided to get a few rooms at an inn in the village and leave the next day for Suna.

Well, the next day came far too quick for Naruto's taste. By the time the sun was up, they were all already on their way. Naruto's only solace was that the caravan of wagons couldn't go so fast, and he didn't have to actually run to keep up with them. It was after their breakfast (on-the-go) that Naruto was approached by Shikamira.

"Is it true that you were a hero in the Fourth Shinobi World War?" the girl asked Naruto as they walked beside a wagon carrying medicine. Saki and Mino, who were walking behind them, ran up to listen to Naruto.

"Well, I _fought_ in it," Naruto said with a smile, a little embarrassed. He'd never really thought of himself as a _war hero_ before, but of course these kids would see it that way. Shikamira reached into her bag and pulled out a book.

"I looked you up, since everyone I know seems to know you somehow, but I've never seen you around," Shikamira said, sounding somewhat ashamed for going behind his back. "I found this great book about the war, and it says that you fought Tobi and the Tailed Beasts."

"Well, it wasn't just me," Naruto said quickly. "I had help from Kakashi-sensei and Gai, and B."

"It _also_ says that you were the Jinchuriki for the Nine-Tailed Fox," Shikamira said, ignoring Naruto's response. "Is that true, too?"

"Look, none of that is really that big of a deal," Naruto assured her. "I'm not –"

"_Shuriken Magazine_ rated you #2 in a list of the most powerful ninja of all-time," Shikamira concluded with a satisfied expression. Even Saki's father didn't make that list, and he's the strongest ninja in the Leaf."

"Apparently not," Mino cut in, earning a glare from both Shikamira and Saki. Naruto was grateful for his comment, though, as it distracted them for a minute.

"Look, I'm not _that_ powerful," Naruto said, waving off her research. "Besides, when did that even come out?" he asked.

"Six years ago," Shikamira said, handing him a tattered, old magazine page with the list. He looked over the list, seeing the other ninja on it. The Third Raikage ranked #1, the First Hokage ranked #8, and Madara Uchiha was #10. Shikamira pointed over his shoulder at a little asterisk next to his name. "It means that you're dead, but you're obviously alive."

All three of his students looked to him for an explanation, so he cleared his throat.

"There was a while, up until recently, that everyone believed I was dead," Naruto confirmed, handing the magazine back to his pupil. "I was forced to fake my death for a very long mission." He didn't offer any further explanation before he left to go talk with Shikamaru. He didn't want to get into the story with his pupils.

After their sensei left, Mino, Saki, and Shikamira all gave each other confused looks.

"What do you think his deal is?" Mino asked the two kunoichi in a low voice, hoping that Naruto couldn't hear him. Shikamira shrugged in response.

"He was at my house last night," Saki whispered in response. "He was talking to my dad, but it was…weird."

"What do you mean?" Shikamira asked.

"Well, my dad was in a bad mood after Naruto-sensei left," Saki explained. "He's been in a bad mood a lot in the last few weeks, actually."

"Did you see the two of them yesterday?" Mino asked the pinkette, who furrowed her brows in confusion.

"I didn't see them talk at all together," she said.

"Exactly," Mino responded. "They never even looked at each other. Maybe they got into a fight or something."

"He called Kakshi 'Kakashi-sensei,'" Shikamira pointed out to the other girl. "If Kakashi was his sensei, then…"

"He was my parents' teammate!" Saki exclaimed slightly loudly. Naruto, who was a few paces ahead of them, turned around and gave her a weird look before facing forward and resuming his conversation with Shikamaru. She lowered her voice. "My mother told me that their teammate used to have a _huge_ crush on her when they were our age. Maybe that's why Naruto-sensei and my dad are acting weird."

"Your father probably feels threatened now that Naruto-sensei is around," Mino surmised. "And Naruto-sensei is probably mad at your father for marrying your mother. Maybe they were fighting over her last night, and that's why they're mad at each other."

"Poor Naruto-sensei," Shikamira said quietly, looking back towards the subject of their conversation. "He's probably been pining for her all this time. It's too bad for him that your parents are in love."

"Yeah," Saki agreed. "If only he was dating somebody. Then, Father wouldn't feel threatened, and Naruto-sensei could be happy." They continued to walk alongside the wagons, until an idea came to Saki's head. She turned and shook Mino's shoulders, causing the other two to stop. "I have a great idea! We can set Naruto-sensei up with your mother!"

"What!?" Mino exclaimed, startled by the suggestion. "Why would I want Naruto-sensei to be my step-father?"

"What are you three talking about?" came a deep, baritone voice from behind them. All three turned at once to see Sasuke walking up to them. Mino and Shikamira decided to start walking again, leaving Saki alone with her father. "Are you guys talking about Naruto?"

"Yeah," Saki responded. "We figured out why you and Naruto-sensei are so awkward around each other," Saki said proudly. She was shocked to see her father's reaction – a mixture of anger, shock, and…embarrassment? What did he have to be embarrassed about? "Don't worry, it's not that bad. I don't think he's much competition." Suddenly, his expression changed to one of confusion.

"What do you mean, 'competition'?" Sasuke asked his daughter.

"Well, just because he wants Mother doesn't mean you should be worried," Saki assured him. "Mother loves you more than anything. Besides, Mino, Shikamira and I are planning on setting Naruto-sensei up with Mino's mom. You don't have to worry about him stealing Mother from you."

Suddenly, a smile broke out on Sasuke's face, and he bowed his head in an effort not to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Saki asked, a little embarrassed that her father was laughing at her amazing plan.

"I don't think that plan will work out," Sasuke confided in her. "But by all means, if you think you should do it, I won't stand in your way."

The two continued to walk until the wagons came to a stop in the middle of the road. Sasuke and Saki both looked around in confusion.

"What happened?" Saki asked her father.

"I'm not sure," Sasuke replied. The two began to run towards the front of the caravan to see why it stopped. When they got to the first wagon, everyone was already there. Saki saw what was wrong – there was a gigantic boulder sitting in the middle of the road. The boulder was so huge that it looked like a big stone wall.

"My kicks are doing nothing," Lee complained.

"And my taijutsu can't break it either," Neji informed Sasuke. "Do you think Susano'o could lift it or something?" he asked the Sharingan user.

"It looks too big, but it's worth a try," the Uchiha told his team leader. His activated his Sharingan, followed by his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. "Susano'o," he said, causing a large, purple being to sprout out of nowhere, growing bones, muscle, and finally skin. The large creature punched the top of the wall, creating a few cracks, but not entirely destroying it. It next tried to move the wall, but it was too big for even Susano'o to lift. Sasuke de-activated his Sharingan in defeat.

"Should we find another way around the wall?" Mino asked the adults.

"That would take too long," Shikamaru explained. "We can't just cut through the woods since we're escorting a caravan, and the nearest road to this is dozens of kilometers out of our way."

"Let me try," Naruto offered, standing forward. "Everyone, get behind me." Everyone complied with Naruto's demand, as he activated his Kyuubi Chakra Mode, becoming shrouded in yellow chakra. He held out a palm as a chakra hand formed to help him. He worked with both his hands and two chakra hands to compress chakra until a dark-purple ball started to form in his hand.

"The Tailed Beast Ball," Sasuke whispered as he saw Naruto create a larger ball. By the end, it reached the size of a softball.

"It's ready," Naruto said.

"Does he really think that thing could break the wall?" Shikamira asked her father with an amused look on her face.

Without hesitation, Naruto plunged the Tailed Beast Ball into the base of the wall. Large cracks spread out from the site of impact, and soon the wall was crumbling down in a million pieces. Shikamira's amused look gave way to shock, matching the faces of her teammates.

"You should see the full-size one," Shikamaru said, leaning down to whisper in her ear.

Cleaning up the rubble from the wall was, as Shikamaru put it, troublesome, but it went by quickly enough. Lee was incredibly helpful in this regard ("If I do not clear a thousand pieces from the road, I will do one thousand sit-ups!"), and Sasuke took care of the leftovers by using his Amaterasu. While they waited for the flames to turn the stone to ash, the two teams decided to have lunch.

Naruto sat down between Neji and Lee, picking up one of the bento that Tsunade had given them. Shikamira and her father came over to join them, followed by Mino and then Saki. Sasuke decided to walk to the back of the caravan and tell the wagon drivers that they were taking a break. Naruto just suspected that Sasuke wanted to avoid him some more.

"We're making good time," Neji observed. "We might even make it to the first checkpoint by the end of tomorrow."

"How far is Suna from Konoha?" Mino asked the jonin as he bit into some pork. Barbeque sauce dribbled down his chin and he wiped it with his sleeve.

"The journey usually takes two or three days," Neji answered the genin. "It should take us a little longer, considering we're traveling with a caravan. It shouldn't take more than a week to get these supplies to Suna. Our first checkpoint is about one-third of that distance from Konoha."

The meal resumed, with the younger three ninja conspiring in whispers about something Naruto couldn't quite hear. Meanwhile, Lee, Shikamaru, and Neji spoke a lot about the past twenty years, about things Naruto had missed. Finally, after a funny story Lee told that involved a rogue ninja from the Land of Lightning, a juggling bear, and a very-pregnant Tenten, the talk ceased, and the meal grew quiet. That is, until Shikamaru spoke up.

"So, Naruto…" he said awkwardly, causing everyone to look at him expectantly. A small tinge of red crept up his neck. "Since we're going to be staying in Suna for a little bit, we'll probably see Temari, won't we?" All the adults seated there understood the apprehension that was quite evident in Shikamaru's voice. "How…is she?"

"She's, uh, good," Naruto said, trying to think of what he should tell Shikamaru. Should he tell him about…? Naruto frowned just thinking about it.

"She's happy?" Shikamaru asked. "There's no hard feelings?" Naruto knew he was treading on thin ice here.

"Well, she's happy," he offered with a nervous smile. "I guess you'll have to ask her about that last part yourself."

"Wait, who's Temari?" Shikamira asked the four adults, who all looked over at Shikamaru in response. Shikamaru sighed and pinched his nose before responding to his daughter.

"Temari is an old friend," he said, choosing his words carefully. "A friend I haven't seen in a long time."

Before she could respond, Naruto looked up to see Sasuke walking towards their group. Everyone followed his gaze to the raven who was slowly approaching. When he finally got within earshot, Naruto was sure he was going to speak to him, but he instead spoke to Mino.

"Mino," he said, catching the attention of the black-haired child. "Come with me. Bring your weapons." Without an explanation, Sasuke turned to walk away. Mino grabbed his ninja tools pouch and fastened it onto his waist before pardoning himself and running after the jonin.

Naruto looked over his shoulder at the rubble that remained on fire. He guessed from the flames that they still had a good hour left before they could resume their mission. He stood up, stretched, and smiled.

"Now's as good a time as any to train," he announced. Lee was the first to respond. He jumped up enthusiastically, before starting to jog in place. "Saki," Naruto said, grabbing the pinkette's attention. "Why don't you do some taijutsu training with Lee? He's the best taijutsu expert I know. I'm sure he'll help you with that technique you've been struggling with."

"Come with me!" Lee yelled enthusiastically. Saki complied, setting her bento box aside and walking over to Lee. "We shall find a nice clearing in the woods, away from distraction." Lee marched through the woods with Saki following behind him.

"I guess that means it's you and me, practicing the Shadow Clone Jutsu, eh, Shikamira?" Naruto asked his last remaining pupil. _I can only hope that Sasuke is training Mino right now_, Naruto thought to himself. Shikamira nodded, a determined look in her eyes. Naruto looked over his shoulder at Neji and Shikamaru expectantly.

"I think I'm going to take a nice nap," Shikamaru said, standing up with a yawn. "I'll be hiding in the wagon with all those piles of clothes." As he walked away, Neji stood up.

"I'll go see what Sasuke is doing with Mino," he said, walking off in the same direction that Mino and Sasuke went, leaving Naruto and Shikamira alone.

"Let's see that Shadow Clone," Naruto said.

If he could say anything about Shikamira after training that day, it was that she sure put in the effort. After the first few tries yielding no results, Shikamira finally managed a semi-clone to appear next to her. The clone was paler, smaller, and standing still in place. It didn't even look alive. Naruto moved a little closer and poked her forehead to see if she was solid. After the slight pressure was applied, the clone fell backwards, landing on her butt, and disappearing in a puff of smoke. Shikamira cursed.

The next try was slightly better. At least this one had good coloring. The face seemed to be a little weird though, and there was still the issue that the clone looked like a life-sized doll. The next try yielded another clone, same as the last, and so did the next. On her ninth try, her clone was slightly different, as it made some noises.

Naruto sat down; his feet were getting tired.

She tried again. This one had webbed feet. She tried again. This one's head was too big. She tried again. Now the head was too small. She tried. She tried. She tried. She tried again.

Naruto was losing count of how many attempts this was. He was confused – he didn't really have much of a problem learning this jutsu. Then again, his chakra reserves are ten-fold what most peoples' are (at least). Even as a jonin, Kakashi could only produce a few shadow clones at a time.

He looked back at Shikamira, who was growling. Her left and right hands were pressed together in a 'ram' hand sign, her chakra obviously flowing out of control in an attempt to get this one right.

"Hold on there," he said, walking over to his student. "You don't have to do that in order to get this jutsu right. Concentrate on your chakra. It's not about how _much_ you use, but how you use it."

Shikamira stopped trying to gather her chakra and took a breath. Her head was facing down, looking at her 'ram' hand sign. Without moving her head, she looked up at Naruto-sensei, and blew a strand of hair out of her face. She inhaled and exhaled once more to calm herself down, before starting to focus some chakra.

"You need to visualize it," Naruto said in a calm, quiet voice. "You aren't just one person, you are two. You need to visualize everything about yourself. Visualize your chakra, especially. You're going to have to split your chakra between yourself and your clone. It won't always have to be a 50/50 split, but start with that anyway; it's easier to visualize."

As she listened to her sensei, she did what he told her to do. She could see her chakra in her head. Then, she split it. Even though it was only meant to be a mental image, she felt her chakra drain as soon as she visualized it. Inhale. Exhale. It was time.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu," she said, letting the chakra flow out her fingers. She closed her eyes, hoping beyond hope that when she opened them, it wouldn't just be her and Naruto-sensei standing here alone. "Did I do it?" she asked her sensei, too afraid of disappointing herself to open her eyes.

"Open your eyes, Shikamira," her sensei told her. And when she did, there was an exact copy of herself standing a foot away, looking at her peculiarly. It was alive. It didn't have webbed feet or overly-humongous eyes. It had ten fingers, and, she assumed, ten toes. The eyes were the right color; so was the hair. Everything seemed so…

"Perfect," Naruto-sensei said with a satisfied smile. "Release the jutsu. It's no different from releasing a Clone or Transformation Jutsu." When she did so, she was relieved to feel the chakra that had splintered off return to her body. There was also a peculiar feeling that happened when the jutsu was released. She couldn't exactly describe it. It was…odd. "You're probably exhausted right now, huh?"

"I can go on," Shikamira insisted, although she knew that she was nearing exhaustion.

"Well, why don't we take a break anyway," Naruto suggested. "I'm curious to see what Sasuke and Mino are up to."

Saki was exhausted. She knew that Uncle Lee's taijutsu training was intense, but…this was incredibly draining. When they had reached a clearing in the woods near the caravan, he had stopped and told her that they would, together, complete two hundred push-ups. When her arms were starting to give out, he said that if they cannot complete two hundred push-ups, then they would do two hundred sit-ups. Everything she did, he insisted on doing as well, and when she reached 154 push-ups and couldn't go on, they switched to sit-ups and restarted the counting.

After they were done with that, Lee found a low-hanging branch on a tree and lifted her up, forcing her to hang there. He climbed up another tree and hung on a branch himself. And together, they did a hundred chin-ups. And when she couldn't do a hundred chin-ups, they ended up doing a hundred jumping jacks.

Then they ran. Then they punched trees ("if we can't do five hundred punches, then we will do five hundred kicks!"). Even after that, they ended up doing kicks. Luckily, after that, she had earned herself a break, he told her.

As she sat on the ground, panting, Lee sat down next to her.

"Feel your arm," he suggested. She looked at him oddly, but complied nonetheless. When she lightly touched a few inches above the wrist, he shook his head. "No, I mean your upper arms, your biceps." She moved her arm up to where he was pointing, and discovered that she could already feel some muscle building. "That's going to be the foundation of your taijutsu fighting."

"What do you mean?" Saki asked. "Isn't _all_ of taijutsu just punching and kicking?"

Lee smiled at her. "Of course not. Do you think I became one of the strongest ninjas in the Leaf just by punching and kicking? What I'm going to teach you will be your ultimate taijutsu technique."

"Ultimate technique," Saki's eyes lit up at the mention of such a powerful technique.

"Yes," Lee said. "But before I teach it to you, you must promise me something first. You may only use this technique in one situation." Confusion swept across her face.

"What situation?" she asked.

"To protect the life of someone who is precious to you."

When Naruto and Shikamira found Sasuke and Mino, there had already been a crowd growing. In addition to many of the wagon riders in the caravan, Shikamaru, Neji, Lee, and Saki were all standing around the space that the Uchiha and his prodigy were using as training grounds.

As they arrived, Naruto noticed Mino performing some hand signs, before placing them down on the ground. _'So that's how it is,'_ Naruto thought to himself. _'Sasuke's teaching him how to do a summoning.'_ When Mino pulled his hand away, a small squirrel appeared. Everyone around began to applaud, and Naruto joined in. He recalled how hard the summoning jutsu had been when he'd first started to learn it.

Naruto just had one question: what was Mino specifically trying to summon?

Typically, the Rinnegan allows the user to summon anything he wants, including people, without the use of a blood contract. When Naruto first saw it being used by Nagato's Animal Path, the things that were summoned were dead carcasses of giant summon animals that had been turned into paths with body piercings and a pair of Rinnegan eyes. When Sasuke used it, he usually did it to summon an ally to the battlefield or to summon any normal animal that he needed at the moment. His summons were usually snakes or hawks because those were what he learned to summon before obtaining the Rinnegan, but he'd grown to use cats, dogs, and even slugs and toads.

'_I guess it will be up to Mino to decide what to do with his summoning abilities,'_ Naruto surmised. While he understood why Sasuke never did it, Nagato's use for the Rinnegan's summoning powers were incredibly useful in battle. In fact, most of the summons themselves were pretty much unstoppable.

"You're catching on fast," Sasuke told the pupil. "Keep practicing it on your own, and next time we spar, I'll show you how to do some elemental release techniques." Mino bowed to the Uchiha respectfully before they parted. Everyone, Saki and Shikamira especially, went to crowd Mino, congratulating him on learning the Summoning Jutsu. Naruto, on the other hand, chose to follow the raven.

He followed Sasuke a little bit, until they were out of earshot of the others. When they were finally a safe distance away, Naruto called out "Sasuke! Wait up!" Sasuke stopped in place and looked over his shoulder.

"What do you want?" he asked coolly.

"I-I just wanted to thank you for helping Mino," Naruto said, taken aback by the tone the Uchiha was using. "I know you're mad at me, but you still did it."

"I didn't do it for _you_," Sasuke said, turning his body around to face his ex-fiancé. "I did it for Mino. Despite being your student, he's a Rinnegan-user, and I'm the only one who could help him out."

"Well, either way, thank you," Naruto said.

"That's not all you wanted to say," Sasuke replied. In response to Naruto's confused expression, he snorted. "If you just wanted to say thank you, you could have said it before, in front of all those people. Instead, you followed me until we were away from them. Obviously there's more you wanted to say. Well, we're alone now. You can say it."

"Why are you so mad at me?" Naruto asked, deciding to abandon his pretenses. When Sasuke didn't respond, Naruto continued. "I get that this whole situation sucks, but I didn't _ask_ for it. I wanted to stay with you."

"Then why didn't you?" Sasuke asked. "You see, you keep saying that you needed to fake your death because of Harame, but I just don't believe you. You're one of the most powerful ninja of all time. I don't buy that you'd just give up everything because _one_ ninja decided to attack you for no reason."

"There are things you don't know," Naruto tried to explain.

"Then _tell me_," Sasuke said angrily. "I deserve to know why I lost everything when I shouldn't have had to. You at least owe me that."

Naruto opened his mouth to argue. He wasn't supposed to tell Sasuke. He was told specifically to not tell anyone. But he knew that it was unfair. He knew Sasuke deserved the truth. So instead of making an excuse, Naruto closed his mouth and nodded his head in the direction of the caravan.

"We'll be leaving soon," Naruto said quietly. "Walk with me. I'll tell you everything you want to know."

**Author's Note: Because I was a day late this week, I'll try to be a day early next week and post on Tuesday. :)**

**Please review and check out my blog at **fanfics-sm . blogspot . com **for updates, chapter reviews, and information about past, present, and future projects. You can also fallow me on Twitter at **SMFanfics**.**


	8. 7: Mist, Leaf, and Sand

**Author's Note: Again, the events in this chapter are mostly new material. I'm adding a lot of depth to the story that didn't exist before, but in the next chapter, we'll start seeing some material from the original story.**

**This chapter was betaed by **SingingSparklyKuma**.**

Chapter 07: Mist, Leaf, and Sand

Jiraya was very uncomfortable making camp in the Land of Water. Yesterday, they had docked in the main island of the Land of Water, and were now in foreign territory. If they ran into a Mist shinobi, they would have to convince them that they are simply peace envoys. Before they left, Tsunade gave him a signed paper with the Hokage's seal, but Jiraya expected any enemies they encountered to be more than a tad suspicious.

"Put out the fire," he told Konohamaru. "It's a little cold tonight, but it's for the best. We don't want some Mist ninja to see the flames and attack us as we sleep." Despite the cool air, Konohamaru followed the Sannin's command and put out the fire, stomping it out to the last ember.

Choji and Iruka were with them as well, finishing their dinner. Iruka had cooked some beans over the fire for them, but Jiraya couldn't eat. He was too nervous.

_Why didn't I ask Tsunade to give me a sensory-type?_ Jiraya asked himself. What he wouldn't give to have the Byakugan scouting out ahead for enemies. Hell, even the Inuzuka clan's dogs or the Aburame clan's bugs would do a good job keeping watch and give the old man some peace of mind.

The leaves rustled nearby, and all four shinobi were quickly on their feet ready for battle. Jiraya had his fingers making a hand sign in case he needed a jutsu. He saw a kunai in Konohamaru's hand, a cooking knife in Iruka's (hey, it was better than nothing), and a chicken leg in Choji's. At least the Akimichi was ready to use his Partial-Expansion Jutsu.

It was a false alarm. Shio walked back through the brush and revealed himself to his teammates. The black-haired Sarutobi was somewhat surprised to see the reaction his allies had, but then he realized he forgot to give the signal. When he went out to scout for the group, Jiraya told him to make a certain bird call when he decided to return.

"Sorry," he said simply, and the others relaxed, all except for Jiraya.

How could he relax? He was way too old to be doing this. He understood the necessity of the mission; heck, he understood why Tsunade wanted him to be the one to offer a peace – any sort of relationship-building wouldn't look complete without a well-known ninja from the village being sent as an envoy.

But still, he was concerned. They were working on stale information. If there was anything he learned in his many years, it was to not get involved in a situation you didn't fully understand. The last news they had from the Mist was of an assassination attempt, and that was months old. Who knows what could have happened?

No one slept well that night, least of all Jiraya. He was happy to wake up and realize that no enemy had slit his throat, however. It didn't take long for them to pack up camp and keep moving. By Jiraya's estimate, they should reach the Hidden Mist by the end of the day.

The morning was quite peaceful. They ended up finding a village that they had to go around in order to stay hidden, which definitely took them a little out of their way, but there were no enemy encounters. They were now close enough to the heavily populated areas that they had to be quiet. There could be a small child or an enemy ninja in any tree.

Without conversation, the day was boring and uneventfully slow. The map that Jiraya had been working off of was clearly outdated when they passed the second unplotted village.

It was about an hour or so after midday when Konohamaru stepped on the branch of a rotten tree, which broke off and sent the man flying down towards the ground with a thud. Jiraya, Iruka, Choji, and Shio all stopped to make sure Konohamaru was alright from the fall. When Jiraya was about to ask if he was okay, they heard another voice.

"What the hell was that?" came a grisly voice that Jiraya estimated was about fifty feet away at most. Jiraya quickly concealed himself in a bush, and Shio was quick to follow suit. Iruka and Choji were the last to hide themselves, but at least they did so before the person speaking showed up. Konohamaru wasn't so lucky.

"What do you think you're doing here?" came a different voice. The two figures came into Jiraya's view. The one who had just spoken was tall but lanky and had short dark-green hair. His face was very pointed, and he was quite homely. His companion was his exact opposite. While he wasn't the most beautiful person to walk the earth, he was certainly something to look at. He had a muscular build that reminded the Sannin of Ibiki, and he had jet-black hair. His face was as well-chiseled as his muscles, and his five-o'clock-shadow completed his tough-guy look.

"We can't let this punk tell anyone that he saw us," the first guy said, pulling out a kunai from his pocked. Jiraya narrowed his eyes. This guy wanted to kill Konohamaru. Well, if he tried, he'd be in for a surprise.

"W-Who are you?" Konohamaru asked, rolling over onto his side. Jiraya could tell that the guy's ankle hurt from his fall, but he had more pressing concerns. Konohamaru looked up at the two men and slowly pushed himself backwards, away from them.

"He doesn't know us," the big guy said with a chuckle. "What a joker."

"Hey, wait a tick," the smaller guy said. "Look at that headband. This guy's from the Leaf."

"Son of a bitch," his partner exclaimed. "What the hell is a Leaf shinobi doing all the way out here?" He hesitated, but then shook his head. "Nah, we still can't let you live. I'm all for whatever your village wants to do to the Mist, but I can't let you go free to tell people that you saw us. It's nothing personal, you understand?"

"You're not gonna win easily," Konohamaru said as his back hit the tree trunk behind him. Using it for support, he stood up, not putting too much weight on his ankle. "You're looking at the grandson of the mighty Third Hokage, Konohamaru Sarutobi."

"It's two ta' one, kid," the big man said with mirth. "It doesn't take a genius to tell you that you're at a disadvantage."

"I wonder about that," Iruka said, coming out from a bush beside the tree that Konohamaru was leaning against. "It looks to me like his odds are improving." _Damn it,_ Jiraya thought. If Iruka hadn't come out early, they could have snuck up on them and captured them for intel on the Mist. They didn't sound like friends to the village, but only shinobi carried kunai.

_They don't want anyone to know they're here,_ Jiraya realized. _They're either rogues or enemy shinobi. Could it be that the Stone has decided to pre-emptively strike the Mist? Or is it the Cloud?_

Either way, Jiraya knew that these two ninja were on the lookout for more enemies now. If Iruka was hiding, then other could – and were – with them.

"It's a party, is it?" the big guy said with a hearty laugh. "Hey, Jan, how many are there?"

After a second, the other replied. "There's another one near the bush this guy just got out of. There's another behind us, and a fifth a little ways off. None of them seem to be sensory-type." _So they have a sensory ninja, do they?_ Jiraya mused. _Well, there's no point in staying hidden._

Jiraya left his bush as Choji did the same. A moment later, Shio left his hiding spot to reveal himself to the others.

Jiraya was able to see the two ninja a little more clearly now. They both had Mist forehead protectors, but the customary slash-through-the-village-insignia of a rogue ninja was present on them. So they weren't another foreign force trying to go under the radar, they were just rogues of the Mist.

"It's five to two guys," Jiraya said, giving them a glare. "It doesn't take a genius to know you're at a disadvantage." The big guy laughed merrily at the use of his words, but the smaller guy was quiet and reserved, analyzing the situation rather than reacting as his partner did.

"I like this guy," he said. "It's a shame I have to kill you."

"Look, we don't want any trouble," Jiraya said quickly before any of his comrades could escalate the situation. "You don't want to be seen or heard, and neither do we. It looks like you have no love for the Mist, and neither do we. There's no need for us to be adversaries when we could help each other out."

The smaller guy narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but the bigger guy was the one who spoke once more. "I'm listening," he told the others. Shio and Choji walked over towards where Konohamaru, Jiraya, and Iruka were standing, so all five were facing the other two.

"How long have you been on the run?" Jiraya asked them.

"When did this turn into an interrogation?" the smaller one asked. "We didn't agree to give you answers or help you attack the village."

"We don't plan on attacking the village –" Konohamaru began, but Jiraya interrupted him.

"Keep quiet, Konohamaru," he said sharply. _Please god, let this work._ "They've already figured out what we're doing here – it doesn't take a genius. A squad of the villages toughest ninja found outside an enemy village. They weren't born yesterday."

"You don't look too tough, old guy," the big enemy said.

"The name's Jiraya," the Sannin told them. "You might recognize the name. I am world famous, you know."

"Chambi," the big guy said. He nodded his head towards his partner. "This is Jan."

"These are our comrades, Iruka, Shio, and Choji," Jiraya told them. "We just want to know the state of the village. Last we heard, the Mizukage was almost assassinated, and there was talk of war with the Iwa."

"It's not just talk no mores," the big guy, Chambi, said, spitting at the ground. "These idiots want to go and start the Fifth Shinobi World War, more power to them. I ain't gonna be a part of it, I told 'em. And what do I get? Thrown into an underground cell. Four days I was there – no water, no food, had to shit and piss all over myself. It wasn't until Jan broke me out that I finally decided to get out before the Mizukage destroyed the place."

"What do you mean it's not talk anymore?" Iruka said, obviously having caught Jiraya's gist. If these guys knew that they were going to be peace envoys, they wouldn't be too quick to give them information. It would lead to a fight, which could attract more enemies.

"The village is starting to store up on medicines and supplies," Jan explained. "We're getting us a surplus of food just in case Iwa brings the war to us. They've been keeping us off a lot of missions, and they're training the genin in combat instead of allowing them to train on squads. They haven't _said_ anything about war, but it doesn't take a particularly smart man to put two and two together."

"There was some talk," Chambi began, trailing off. "I dunno how much of it's truth and how much of it's stories, but they says that the squads they sent to Iwa to get that assassin was captured, interrogated, and executed by the Stones. They sent us back the heads. Since then, Lord Mizukage has been keeping us from the Land of Earth."

"You think it will come to war," Jiraya surmised.

"It's already been decided," Chambi said. "The only question is when."

"Now what do we get in return for this info?" Jan asked, getting right to the point. "You got what you want, now help us get out of here. No fisherman's gonna give us a boat across. We're wanted men. But you guys could get us off this island, maybe start a new life in Konoha."

"I'm sorry," Jiraya said, cutting off Iruka who was about to speak. "But we still have a mission to complete. I just have one more thing to ask of you."

"Well, you won't get any more out of us," Jan said, glaring at the older man. Jiraya smirked. He knew that Shio had understood what he wanted, and he knew it was the perfect time. Suddenly, the entire forest around them morphed into a pink, squishy, rectangular shape. The size wasn't too big – about ten feet long and five feet wide – but it was enough to serve the purpose.

Jan and Chambi looked around as the fresh air went away, the blue sky was covered, and the five shinobi standing in front of them disappeared as the frog intestines fully materialized around them.

Jiraya smirked as the frog shrunk back down to size. He looked over at his teammates – Iruka and Choji had carried Konohamaru as Shio placed the rogue ninjas under a genjutsu. They were now examining Konohamaru's ankle despite the younger man insisting he was fine. Jiraya looked back at the frog and dispelled it. He didn't need those two now, but they might come in handy later.

That little detour cost them another hour, and it soon became clear that they would have to wait until the morning to arrive at the village. They could still get in a few hours of movement, though, if Konohamaru could truly move.

He wasn't as alright as he insisted, but they were still able to make a bit more movement before they had to set up camp for the night. At least now they had something. _The Mist is gearing for war._ As Iruka set up the sleeping bags and prepared the dinner meal, Jiraya summoned another frog, Gamatso, Gamatatsu's son.

"Hey there, Master Jiraya," the frog said in the same loud-pitched voice his father had at that age. "What can I do ya for?"

"I need you to report a message back to the village," Jiraya said. The frog nodded his head. "Tell the Hokage that the Mist has been preparing for war. Stocking up supplies, training ninja with unusual gusto, and stopping all missions. Do you think you can remember that?"

"I got ya, boss," the frog said before disappearing to Mount Myoboku. He would probably be able to make it to the village by the time Jiraya and his team got to the Mist. If something happened though, Tsunade would need to know as much as she could about the situation.

Jiraya didn't eat with the others that night. Instead, he decided to go to sleep early. He was so exhausted after that day that the second he got into his sleeping bag, he fell asleep.

He woke up to the feeling of a kunai on his throat.

* * *

Sakura, Hinata, Tenten, and Ino were all sitting around Ino's dining room table, two bottles of alcohol open and a poker game already in progress. They had been like that for about an hour, and they still had a little bit of time before the game had to end.

With Sasuke out on a mission with Neji and Shikamaru, Ino, Sakura, and Tenten were husbandless for the present. And while all three of them had children, Sakura was having Ako take care of his brother Fushiki, and Tenten's son Mako was sleeping over at Hinata's with his cousins. Kiba was watching them his last night before going off on a mission.

"I fold," Sakura said, putting her cards face-down. Hinata quickly followed suit – her cards were even worse than Sakura's. Ino and Tenten looked at each other and then placed their cards down.

"I win again," Tenten said, pulling the lot of chips towards her. "You three just have shitty luck today."

"Tell me about it," Ino muttered. Hinata looked over at Sakura with a confused expression, but Sakura just rolled her eyes. Tenten and Hinata weren't subjected to the three-hour rant that Ino went on earlier. But Tenten decided to speak up anyway.

"What's going on, honey?" she asked compassionately. "You've been acting weird all night."

Ino sighed before reaching for her glass of sake. "I didn't realize until today that Temari's gonna be there when Shikamaru gets to Suna."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Tenten assured the blond, just as Sakura had hours ago. "What happened between them was ages ago. It would be like Sakura complaining that Naruto and Sasuke are on the mission together." The pinkette's eyes twitched. While she wasn't making a big deal out of it like her friend was, she was still a little worried.

She knew Sasuke didn't love her. In the last few years, she let herself believe that he had fallen for her, but ever since Naruto came back, she felt his distance. She knew that things between the two of them were probably never going to go back to where they were before Naruto left the village, but it still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

_Don't think about that,_ she told herself. _Remember, you're lucky that Naruto's alive in the first place. And he's _married_. As long as Naruto is with Gaara, Sasuke won't throw away our family._ The thing she was more concerned about was the children. How would Ako, Saki, and Fushiki react when they found out about Naruto's history with their father? Sakura saw it as only a matter of time in this village. No one could keep secrets, and this one was a doozy.

Tenten saw the look in Sakura's eyes and immediately regretted her statement. "Y'know…because…" she started to trail off. "Everyone knows there's nothing to worry about with them." She looked at Hinata for help, but the Hyuga just took a gulp of her vodka. "And the same goes for Shikamaru and Temari. You two are just worried over nothing."

"I'm not _worried_," Sakura insisted. "Naruto's in love with Gaara, and he's one of my best friends. There's no way he'd do anything with Sasuke." What was left unsaid, however, was that Sasuke might not feel the same. And the other girls picked up on that as well.

"And Sasuke loves you," Ino said, momentarily forgetting her own concerns. "He might not show it, but he's like that. You know he loves you."

"Maybe," Sakura said with a nod. "I mean, he's been acting weird ever since Naruto came back, and he's never actually come out and said that he's in love with me. I mean, he gets really romantic sometimes – he treats me to dates, and he takes such good care of me in our bedroom." She shook her head. "I'm probably just making a big deal out of nothing," she said with a small chuckle. "Besides, we're not talking about Sasuke and Naruto, we're talking about Shikamaru and Temari."

"I wish you wouldn't say it like that," Ino said grumpily before sighing. "No, you're right. Shikamaru wouldn't cheat on me or anything; I know that. I just don't want Temari to get any ideas, that bitch."

"Wasn't _she_ the one who broke up with Shikamaru?" Hinata asked, earning a glare from Ino. She obviously didn't like being reminded that her husband wasn't the one to end things between them. "I-I mean…sh-she probably won't try anything, is all."

The room got quiet as Ino dealt out the next hand to everyone. Sakura studied her cards and inwardly growled. Why wasn't she getting any luck today? All she had was a pair of threes! Sakura put a chip in for the ante.

"I raise two," Ino said, placing two more chips to the middle. Hinata matched, as did Tenten. Sakura wasn't going to let Tenten win again, however. She put in the two chips to match, but then smirked.

"I raise two," Sakura said. Ino matched, but Hinata decided to fold. Sakura couldn't blame her – she didn't have many chips left. When it came to Tenten, Sakura saw the faintest hint of a smirk as she put two more in. Sakura growled and looked down at her hand.

It was pretty crappy, and she'd already put in five chips. She didn't want to let Tenten know that she was getting the best of her, but she didn't want to risk too much more on a shit hand. "One," she said, placing a lone chip in the center.

This time it was Ino's turn to take a moment to analyze. As she did so, Sakura reached out to the nearly-empty sake bottle to pour another glass. She didn't realize how much she was going through. As soon as she finished pouring, she knocked back most of the glass. Finally, Ino settled on folding, leaving only Tenten and Sakura in the round.

"I match," Tenten said, placing another chip in the center. Sakura looked back down at her hand, and sighed. She had six more chips left, but she didn't want to lose now. As much as she wanted to win, she couldn't risk so much on a crappy hand. She took another drink of sake.

"One more," she said, placing her next chip in the middle. Tenten didn't blink before she matched. Sakura downed the rest of her glass and poured another.

"Slow down there," Ino said with a chuckle as the last dregs of the bottle spilled out into the glass. Sakura drank the whole thing in one gulp and smiled at Tenten.

"I'm all in," she said, placing her last five chips in the center. She saw Tenten's barely-there smirk fade momentarily as Hinata quietly gasped and Ino looked on with a piqued interest. Sakura wasn't known to be the big gambler of the group. Believe it or not, that title belonged to Ino. When she went all in, she generally meant it.

Except she totally didn't this time, which was weird for her. She could feel all the alcohol she had consumed starting to cloud her judgment a little bit, but she didn't care much. She smirked triumphantly at Tenten's suspicious look. Tenten put five chips into the middle and smirked.

"Let's see what you have," she said to Sakura, who growled and put her hand down: a four, two threes, a jack, and a king. Tenten cursed and put down her hand: a seven, an eight, a nine, and two twos. Sakura smiled with shock. Tenten finally got a shitty hand. She reached out and pulled the entire lot towards her.

"I guess your luck's starting to turn around," Ino commented to Tenten, who pouted for a moment before changing expression.

"I almost forgot," she said suddenly, turning to Hinata. "How's Hiashi doing?"

"I heard!" Ino exclaimed before Hinata could answer. She turned to the Hyuga as well. Sakura looked at them with confusion.

"Heard what?" she asked. The last she had heard of Hiashi Hyuga was that he was angry at his son for not focusing on starting a family.

"F-Father's in the hospital," Hinata said. "It happened today," she clarified after seeing Sakura's confused expression. Today was her day off from the hospital, so she wouldn't have known. "He's really sick. The doctors don't think he'll make it."

"How are you feeling?" Ino asked her, tenderly placing a hand on her shoulder.

"It's hard," Hinata admitted. "But you should see Hanabi – he's a wreck. He was so angry at Father, because he wanted Hanabi to give up being a jonin so he could settle down and raise the family. He was always telling him it was his duty as the head of the Hyuga clan. Last week they had a huge fight over it, and now Father's probably going to…" she trailed off, beginning to sob. Tenten immediately pulled her into a hug, and Sakura would have done the same if she wasn't on the other side of the table.

"What's he sick with?" Sakura asked, standing up. "Maybe I could help. I'll go there now and –" she made to move towards Hinata, but stumbled and fell to the ground, alarming the others.

"I don't think you'll be of any use to anyone right now," Ino said, walking over to help Sakura up. "Maybe after you sleep off this sake you'll go to the hospital and offer to help."

"I'm not that drunk," Sakura said, pushing Ino away so she could stand up on her own and prove them wrong. She stumbled again, but caught herself before falling.

"You can barely walk," Tenten said, shaking her head. "I think it's time to go home." Sakura argued a little bit, wanting to help Hinata and make her feel better, but in the end, Ino and Hinata managed to convince her to let Tenten walk her home. She would need to be back anyway if she wanted to get any sleep before work tomorrow.

As she was walking Sakura home, Tenten wondered why she volunteered. Sakura was barely able to walk in a straight line, so she had to put the pinkette's arm over her shoulder to support her, and the drunk girl was incredibly loud. Sakura didn't get drunk often, but Tenten suddenly remembered why she absolutely hated it.

"And…and then Ako told me that he wanted to hang out with Hakiri –" Sakura began, slurring her words.

"Hariki," Tenten corrected, but Sakura kept going.

"–instead of babysitting Fushiki," she finished, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, 'hang out.'" She used air quotes to express her opinion. "I told him that since his sister was out on her first real mis…mish…mission," she continued, struggling on the word, "he had to pick up some of the slack. I was like," she pulled away from Tenten and poked her chest with her finger, glaring at her, "listen mister…mister bad…bad…attitude…thingy," she trailed off. And then started again, nearly shouting this time. "You're gonna watch your brother and…and you're gonna _like_ it." She stumbled and fell over, and Tenten cursed.

"Sakura," she said as she tried to pull the girl off the ground. "_Sakura_, get up!" She managed to yank her up into a sitting position, but Sakura looked at her with a miserable expression.

"I don't feel too good," she said. Tenten immediately turned her over, just in time for Sakura to begin vomiting all over the ground, with disgusting sounds to match the visual. Tenten made sure to keep the hair out of her face, but was getting fed up. Why did she ever volunteer for Sakura-duty?"

"Tenten?" came a voice from behind her. Tenten turned her head to see Kakashi walking towards them. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, grateful that there was someone to help her. "Sakura's just a little drunk."

"'m not," Sakura said in between puking. Tenten rolled her eyes and looked back at Kakashi.

"Here, let me help you," Kakashi said. Tenten immediately looked relieved, and she bowed her head to Kakashi.

"Thank you so much," she said. "I owe you big time." As she spoke, she felt Sakura go limp, and made sure to lay her down on the pavement away from the vomit. It's a good thing she passed out – it made Kakashi's job easier. "Oh, and don't let Ako or Fushiki see her, if you can help it. She doesn't get drunk all that often, and I'm not sure if they've ever seen her like that."

"You got it," Kakashi said, picking up Sakura's body and throwing her over his shoulder. "Let's go."

When Sakura woke up the next morning, the first thing she realized was that she had a pounding headache. Slowly, memories of last night came back to her, and she groaned. She made an ass of herself. Now she remembered why she hated getting drunk. The second thing she realized was that she felt clean. She looked down and noticed that she was dressed in a bed robe instead of the clothes she had worn out last night. The third thing she noticed was the distinct smell of chocolate-chip pancakes wafting through the house.

She got herself out of bed and got something for her headache from her medicine cabinet. She looked at herself in the mirror briefly and grimaced at what she saw. She quickly ran a brush through her hair before putting on slippers and walking downstairs towards the kitchen.

She was mildly surprised as she passed through the living room to see a blanket and a pillow out on the sofa, the piece of furniture clearly having been slept on overnight. She was confused until she walked into the kitchen to see Kakashi standing in front of the stove, making pancakes.

"Kakashi?" she asked, somewhat confused at the man's presence in her kitchen. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, sit down," he urged her, looking over his shoulder. "Breakfast is almost ready. Ako already left to get his mission from Lady Hokage, but Fushiki will be joining us." Acknowledging her confused look, he smiled. "I saw Tenten trying to take you home last night, and I offered to help. She was concerned leaving you here alone, so I decided to stay down on the couch to ease her fears."

"Oh," Sakura said dumbly as she moved towards the coffee machine to get some coffee. She needed something to wake her up. "Thanks for this, Kakashi."

"It's not a problem," Kakashi said. "It turns out she had to get back home for Mako, because he left Kiba and Hinata's. Oh, and don't worry about being clean; Tenten was the one who cleaned you up and dressed you in that." Sakura blushed, realizing that she hadn't even thought of that.

"Thank you," she repeated. "I definitely owe you one."

"Anytime," he said with a smile as Fushiki entered the room for breakfast.

* * *

The caravan had arrived at Suna late that night. In fact, they were lucky that there was a sentry on lookout to alert the Kazekage that they had arrived. They were an entire day behind schedule due to a detour they had to make. They were met at the gates by Temari, who was helping to oversee the reconstruction.

"Naruto!" Temari exclaimed upon seeing her brother-in-law at the front with his genin team. Naruto walked forward and gave her a hug, squeezing her. After not seeing her for a month, he was very excited to see her again, even if she wasn't his favorite person in the world. It reminded him of home. "I didn't realize you were the one who was escorting the caravan."

"Yep," he said with a grin, stepping back. "Me and my genin team." He swept his arms to indicate the three genin standing behind him, and she looked at them.

The first of the three was obviously Sakura and Sasuke's daughter. She had her pink hair and his black eyes. She even looked like Sakura did at that age. Temari wondered how Naruto was handling being her sensei. The kid standing next to her was quite a shock, however. He didn't remind her of anyone, but it's impossible to not recognize the Rinnegan. She'd never forget how those eyes looked when Madara Uchiha used them to bring a meteor down upon the battlefield in the Fourth Shinobi World War. She would have to ask Naruto how this kid got these eyes.

The third child was even more of a shock. She looked like a tomboy with a bored expression. She sported dirty-blond hair and eyes that looked just like her father's. Even though there was nothing as striking as the other girl's pink hair, it was obvious that this girl was Shikamaru's daughter.

"Temari, I'd like to introduce you to Saki Uchiha," Naruto began, pausing after the first name to let it sink in. "Mino Kano…" he continued with another pause. "…and Shikamira Nara. Guys, this is Temari; she's sister to the Fifth and Sixth Kazekages, and my sister-in-law."

Temari was about to greet the three youngsters when the mini-Sakura decided to speak up in a way that reminded the blond very much of her sensei. "You're _married_!?" Temari noticed that this was news to all three kids and briefly wondered why he never told them he was married.

"Oh, I never mentioned that, did I?" Naruto asked a little sheepish at the attention to his personal life.

"But that's impossible!" Saki exclaimed, looking to her teammates for back-up. "If you're married then why are you in love with mom?"

"What?" came Sasuke's voice from behind them. Temari looked up to see Sasuke walking towards them, followed by Lee. She was slightly surprised to see them, and wondered who else was with the group. Suddenly, she wondered how awkward this visit would be with Sasuke here. It seems that Sasuke overheard his daughter's outburst and was just as confused as Temari and Naruto were.

"Why would you think I was in love with your mom?" Naruto asked, his confusion more than evident in his tone. Temari wanted to hear this as well, but she was distracted when she saw the other two figures approaching from behind. She barely registered the Hyuga jonin who was there, as her attention was completely focused on her ex. This visit would definitely be more than a little awkward.

"Well, Father has been mad at you ever since you were at our house the night before we left," Saki continued, oblivious to the expressions on all the adults' faces. "Isn't it because he's mad that you want to get with mom?"

Surprisingly, Neji was the first to laugh. Temari wouldn't be far behind had it not been for the awkward glance that she and Shikamaru shared before looking away. Sasuke and Naruto were too mortified to respond, and Lee was unusually quiet.

"I'm not mad at Naruto," Sasuke said in a tone of voice that implied he was very mad at Naruto. None of the kids were believing him, and Temari couldn't blame him. "Don't worry about it."

"Why don't we get you guys inside the village," Temari suggested, trying to resolve the awkward tension in the air. "I'm sure you have a good excuse for being late, Naru."

"Don't I always?" Naruto said with his trademark grin. She led the eight Konoha ninja through the gates and the caravan followed, eventually stopping immediately inside the walls of the village. Temari told them to stay there and rest, because when the sun rose the next morning, villagers would help them unload their cargo.

As for the ninja, they had made accommodations in the Kazekage's mansion, which would barely have enough space to house them all. Luckily, Naruto would share Gaara's room, but the four other adults would probably have to manage with two rooms.

As she let the others settle into their rooms (Lee and Neji shared a room, as did Sasuke and Shikamaru), Temari pulled Naruto aside, and brought him down to the kitchen. She immediately raided the fridge for a midnight (well, more like a 3am) snack.

"What's going on between you and Sasuke?" she asked. Her voice wasn't exactly _accusatory_, but it was certainly somewhat suspicious.

"Nothing," Naruto denied vehemently. "He's just mad because I'm with Gaara and am not throwing him away to go back to how things were."

"So he wants you back," Temari said, opening a box of pastries and taking one out. "You want one?" she asked, holding up the box. Naruto scrunched his nose. "More for me," she said with a shrug.

"Yeah, he wants me back," Naruto said with a shrug. "But it doesn't really matter. You know how much I love Gaara." He gave a pointed look as she bit into her snack.

"And _un_like either of my brothers, I also know how much you loved Sasuke," Temari said with a smirk. "You forget that I was there when you and Sasuke were over the moon."

"I don't like what you're implying," Naruto said angrily.

"I'm kidding, Naruto," she said with a chuckle. "I know you love Gaara."

Instead of continuing the conversation, Naruto decided to go upstairs to his room. He was quiet opening the door, but it was useless – Gaara was already awake. Naruto almost forgot about his husband's frequent insomnia. It mostly went away over the last few years, but it seemed tonight was one of his awake nights.

"It's about time," Gaara said as Naruto walked into the room. Gaara stood up and walked over to him, closing the door as he pulled the blond into his embrace. He leaned over and kissed his husband fiercely, for the first time in over a month. He tasted the blond as if it was his first time doing so, and Naruto quickly let himself lose his thoughts and react.

His tongue moved against Gaara's in a skillfully practiced motion. Gaara groaned into the kiss and bucked his hips into Naruto's. He pulled away momentarily. "You're late," he said before reclaiming the blonde's lips in the kiss once more. They rocked back in forth against the door like two horny teenagers until Naruto pulled away.

He pulled his shirt over his head and looked at Gaara with a foxy grin. "What are you gonna do about it?" he asked evilly. Gaara moved to pull his shirt off, capturing Naruto's mouth once more when the article was successfully removed. They were quite loud as they bucked against each other, and Gaara made sure to pull Naruto's bare chest to his own, reveling in the warmth his husband provided.

Suddenly, Gaara pulled them around and began to move them closer to the bed, never once breaking their kiss. When Naruto felt the back of his knees touch the bed that he and Gaara shared for many years, he slowly lowered himself until he was sitting and Gaara was in his lap. He could feel his husband's erection poking him in the stomach, but he knew he wasn't much better. Gaara was practically sitting on his.

Gaara pulled away once more. "I'm topping this time," he said quickly before leaning down once more. Naruto groaned his affirmation through the kiss, and laid down so that Gaara was on top of him. He grabbed Gaara's sleep pants and his boxers, and with one motion, declothed his husband. Gaara was now entirely naked, lying on top of Naruto's half-naked form.

Gaara sat up once more, revealing his leaking cock to the blond. He leaned forward to unbuckle his husband's pants, and Naruto quickly removed them and his own underwear to reveal his manhood in the same condition as Gaara's. Naruto reached over to the bedside table to pick up the lube that Gaara had left out – he was waiting a while, Naruto assumed.

He immediately scooted himself back so that he was out from underneath Gaara. He squirted some of the liquid onto his fingers and raised his legs to reveal his hole to Gaara. He slowly circled a finger around his entrance, making sure to look at his husband with hungry eyes. Gaara's own green orbs held a similar look. After a few seconds, Naruto stuck his finger in his ass, throwing his head back to give Gaara a show.

The redhead seemed to be frozen still as Naruto stretched himself, preparing himself for his first time bottoming in months. It wasn't something that happened often with Gaara, but he was more than willing to do it any time Gaara asked. Soon, he added a second finger to the mix, stretching himself further.

He pumped the two fingers in and out of his ass quickly, trying to get Gaara to react. When he finally looked up from Naruto's ministrations into the blonde's eyes, Naruto saw the sheer hunger. He began to scissor his fingers so that the preparation would end, and soon plucked his fingers from his ass entirely.

"Turn over," Gaara said, taking the initiative and being quite dominant. It was unusual that Gaara got this dominant, but Naruto didn't complain or argue. He turned over, bending over on his knees so that his ass was in the air. Gaara picked up the lube and put a generous amount on his prick before squirting some into Naruto's newly-loosened hole.

Gaara lined his cock up to Naruto's hole and allowed Naruto a minute before he started to plunge in. Gaara threw his head back and groaned as he slowly entered his husband for the first time in months. Naruto was making similar noises, showing his pleasure. It hurt a little bit after such a long time, but it was such a sweet hurt.

When Gaara was finally all the way inside, he allowed Naruto a few moments before withdrawing and reentering with a slam. Naruto grunted as Gaara pulled out and back in, but the grunts soon became moans as Gaara found his sweet spot. Gaara pumped in and out, in and out, in and out, bringing the blond and himself much pleasure.

"I'm mad," Gaara said in between thrusts. "You were supposed to be here yesterday." Naruto grunted as he felt his husband hit that spot again. He didn't want to make enough noise to keep up those in nearby rooms, but he couldn't help himself.

"I guess…" Naruto began as Gaara pounded his ass, "…you'll just…" another thrust, "…have to…" another, "…punish me."

"That's a good idea," Gaara said as he thrust. He didn't waste any time in bringing down his hand on Naruto's ass. The slap was loud and rough, but not too bad for Naruto to handle. Suddenly, Naruto's cock throbbed and he moved his hand to begin stroking his member. Gaara slapped him again, this time on the other cheek, causing Naruto to moan. On the third slap, placed on the first cheek, Naruto choked out a groan, and on the fourth slap, placed on the second cheek, Naruto came loudly with Gaara's name on his throat.

As Naruto spilled his seed all over the sheets, Gaara felt the anal walls contract and expand around his own member, and knew he was so close. He slammed in once, twice, three times before he came into Naruto's inviting ass. He rode out his orgasm, the sound of his balls slapping on Naruto's ass echoing around the room. "Naruto," he choked as his husband's ass finished milking his cock.

Gaara collapsed on top of Naruto, and the blond soon gave and fell onto the messy sheets. "Wanna clean up?" he asked his husband, who was usually very anal (pun intended) about not sleeping in messy sheets. But this time, his husband grumbled something that sounded like 'don't care,' and pulled his husband to him. Gaara's slowly softening prick was still inside his husband, and that's just how Gaara wanted it.

The next morning, Naruto woke up to find that he felt incredibly sticky. His husband had already left the bed, but he left a note behind, telling him that he'd be waiting in the kitchen. When Naruto looked at the clock, he was unsurprised to see that it was well into the afternoon. He quickly got up, got dressed, and made his way downstairs.

It seemed everybody was eating lunch around that time. Shikamaru was eating with Shikamira, Saki, and Sasuke at the table, while Gaara, Neji, Lee, and Temari made small talk near the counter.

"Hey there, loverboy," Temari said, being the first person to notice Naruto. Suddenly, every gaze turned to Naruto but one. "I hope you slept well after last night." She grinned at him, and Naruto felt mortified as everyone except Sasuke and the children started to snicker or smirk in response.

"Shut up, Temari," Gaara said, crossing the kitchen to Naruto, who embraced his husband and buried his head into his shoulder. "Don't worry, the guest rooms were far enough away that they didn't hear anything…well, except for Sasuke and Shikamaru." Naruto lifted his head to look at Sasuke, who was clearly avoiding his gaze.

"So Naruto-sensei," Saki began from across the room, looking at him with a little confusion. "Where's your wife? We haven't seen anyone since we got here."

"My wife?" Naruto repeated, blinking in confusion. He and Gaara moved apart and both faced the girl. Suddenly, Naruto realized. "Oh, I didn't tell you _who_ I was married to, did I?" He stepped back and swept his hands to indicate Gaara. "May I introduce to you Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage, and my husband."

The room was silent for a moment as the two teenagers took in the information. All the adults, of course, knew about this already, but it didn't stop the situation from being slightly awkward. Especially with Sasuke's reaction. He was trying not to make a scene, especially since Saki was picking up on his behavior towards Naruto, but he couldn't help but react just a little bit.

"You're gay?!" Saki asked, quite shocked at this information. Just hours ago, she would have sworn that her sensei was crushing on her mom, and now he was married to another guy? She was waaaaaaaaay off.

"That's not a problem, is it?" Gaara asked somewhat icily. Naruto put his hand on his husband's shoulder, but Saki answered anyway.

"No!" she exclaimed quickly. "Of course not. Mom always said that being gay was normal." Shikamira nodded in agreement. Naruto smiled at their reactions, but Gaara continued.

"And your father?" he asked, looking instead at Sasuke.

"Gaara!" Naruto admonished, subtly hitting his husband in the back. But Gaara ignored him.

"What does your father think about homosexuality?" the former-Kazekage asked.

Saki was completely confused now. Her mother and father rarely brought up homosexuality – in fact, her mother only spoke about it a few times when Iruka and Kakashi got together, and her father hadn't spoken about it at all, as far as she recalled. Did Gaara know that? She frowned. Could that have something to do with the way Sasuke was mad at Naruto?

Suddenly, she realized, what if her father was a homophobe? She tried to tell herself that he couldn't be – he didn't mind Kakashi or Iruka, after all. Then again, Kakashi was like a father-figure to her father, so he might have overlooked it, sort of like a special case. Maybe he didn't make the same exception for Naruto, and this is what caused their fight. It didn't make complete sense, but it was the best theory she could come up with. She looked over at her father and frowned. He looked very uncomfortable right now, like he didn't want to be anywhere near this conversation.

Luckily she was spared from answering when someone else entered the room. This girl seemed to be a few years older than Saki – maybe a little older than Ako – but the weird thing was that she looked a lot like Shikamira. Their hair was similar, even though Shikamira's was slightly lighter, and their faces had a striking resemblance. In fact, she wasn't the only one looking between Shikamira and the new girl.

"Looks like we have company," the girl said upon seeing the kitchen.

"Shiminama," Temari said suddenly. "These are the guests from Konoha I was telling you about."

"Hello Uncle Naruto," Shiminama said, noticing her uncle for the first time. He moved over to hug her, and as she pulled away, she looked over the rest of the people. She was quite shocked to see that one of the girls looked a lot like her. It was a little unsettling, but she ignored it. "Are these _your_ genin?" she asked, surprised that Naruto already had such a high position after being gone a month.

"Yup," Naruto said with a smile. "This is Saki and Shikamira. My third, Mino, is somewhere else. Guys, this is Shiminama, Temari's daughter." People began to introduce themselves all at once.

"How old are you?" came a loud question from the other side of the room that cut through all the introductions. It seemed that Sasuke was the first to react to seeing a carbon-copy of Shikamira, who also happened to resemble Shikamaru a bit. The question made Temari nervous, as it subtly implied what a few others were thinking.

"What's it to you?" Shiminama asked hostilely. "Trust me, I'm too young for you." The 'ew' that everyone else was thinking was left unsaid as Sasuke rolled his eyes at the smart-ass remark.

"How old?" Shikamaru repeated from his seat next to Sasuke, catching on to what the Uchiha was implying. When neither Shiminama nor Temari replied, Naruto took it upon himself to answer.

"Nineteen," he said.

"Almost twenty," the girl corrected.

Shikamaru sat in the corner in stunned silence. _Almost twenty_. Add another nine months, and it was almost as if she was conceived back when Temari was in Konoha, when she was…

"Temari," Shikamaru all but growled. "We need to talk." The blond nodded and led her ex out to the living room, away from everyone else. When he was sure they were out of earshot, he finally asked the question. "Is that why you left without telling me?" Shikamaru asked. "Is Shiminama my daughter?"

"Yes," she told him.

**Author's Note: Oh no, did I just kill Jiraya? Well, you'll have to wait a week to find out. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas (or Channukah, if you celebrate that). And have a Happy New Year! If I'm doing my math right, then the next chapter will be posted in the New Year! See you in the future!**

**Also, I just realized that the page breaks I put in the fic aren't showing up all the time? I'll try and get on that in the next week to fix things up. I'll just put the regular FFN page break in there, since the ~~~~ one I use isn't showing up.**

**Please review and check out my blog at **fanfics-sm . blogspot . com **for updates, chapter reviews, and information about past, present, and future projects. You can also fallow me on Twitter at **SMFanfics**.**


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